That looks on tempests and is never shaken
by sopheliasophy
Summary: After the events on Wickery Bridge, Elena transitions. But what kind of vampire will she be? This one is going to get dark, folks.
1. Chapter 1

Damon had the door open before the bell had even stopped ringing.

"About damn time, witch."

"Damon." Bonnie brushed past him, and went into the living room of the Salvatore Boarding House. Stefan stood in front of the fireplace, staring into it. She addressed herself to his back, holding up a large dusty book. "Not exactly an easy spell to find . . . but it was in here, one of the grimoires the Martins left behind."

"So Elijah was right. It is possible," Damon said, moving to the drinks cart and pouring himself a glass of bourbon.

"Technically? Maybe . . . this grimoire is very, very old. And some of the terminology is unclear. I can't be sure . . . "

"But it _is_ possible," Damon insisted.

Bonnie sighed. "I think so."

Stefan turned around, his face set and determined. "Is it dark magic? Like the spell we used on Klaus?"

"Yes," Bonnie said, looking at him steadily. "And it requires a similar kind of balance."

"Whatever the price is, we will pay it," Damon responded, drinking from his glass and then setting it down.

Bonnie glanced at the staircase. "Is she . . .?"

"Youngest Gilbert is up there with her, swapping stories about Grammy and Grampy, and 'remember when Daddy Dear used to dress up like Santy Claus at Christmas?' "

"Good," said Bonnie. "I definitely do not want her to hear us talk about this. What else did Elijah tell you when you spoke to him?"

Damon came around the drinks cart and sat down on the couch. "Other than the fact that he and Rebekah were on their way to collect Klaus' body from the storage units, nothing."

"You just left him there?"

"What was I supposed to do, Bonnie? I only had room to take one corpse, and I chose to bring home Ric. I wasn't _exactly_ thinking clearly at the time. Elena was dead, I thought I was dying, so I was in a bit of a hurry. So sue me. I even left that damn stake there, so Elijah has that now, too." He took a swig from his glass, set it down, and then said, "Sit down, witch, and tell us - exactly what do we need to do to keep Elena from turning into a vampire?"

Bonnie sat down on the other end of the couch, and said, keeping her voice low, "First we need another vampire."

"Well, that's easy. We have two in this room alone."

"And there's a blood exchange involved."

"Of course. There always is."

"And then -" she hesitated, dropping her eyes to the book.

Stefan interjected, "And then you have to kill the vampire. That's the balance required."

Bonnie looked over at Stefan. "Yes. Then we have to kill the vampire. I have to stop the vampire's heart, and desiccate them. Very similar to how we brought down Klaus. It's a process that we know an Original can ultimately survive."

"But an ordinary vampire probably won't," Stefan concluded, quietly.

"We don't know that. But most likely not."

"Not a problem," Damon said. "It'll take me all of five minutes to go out to the Grill, grab someone, and make ourselves a nice, handy sacrificial vampire."

"Damon, no," Stefan said, firmly.

"Oh, c'mon, Stef! I wasn't going to turn anyone we know. Wasn't going to grab our favorite busboy. And it's not like Rebekah or Elijah are going to show up and volunteer in the last couple of hours that we have left with a human Elena."

"It's not going to happen, Damon," Bonnie said, "You know I won't do that to somebody innocent."

"Fine," Damon said, with a grimace. After a pause, he continued with a hard note in his voice, "Then you can do it to somebody not so innocent. You can do the spell on me."

"Damon -" Stefan began, but Damon cut him off.

"Don't even think about it, brother. You are so hell bent on giving everyone their free will all the damn time," Damon met Stefan's eyes, "Well, this is my choice."

"It's my fault this happened," Stefan said quietly, not breaking eye contact. "If anyone has to sign up for this, it should be me."

"Oh, yes. It is your fault. I haven't forgotten that. Because you saved _Matt Fucking Donovan_. But if things go wrong, you are also the only one our girlfriend can't seem to live without. So it's not going to be you, brother." Damon turned to Bonnie. "There's not much time left. Let's do this thing."

Bonnie looked at Stefan and hesitated, saying "If you are sure . . ."

Stefan didn't answer. He turned his back on both of them, and continued staring into the the fireplace.

Bonnie picked up the grimoire slowly, and then said to Damon, "Okay, then. But you have to come up with an excuse to get blood from Elena. And to make her drink yours."

"Not a problem. She's off the vervain, so I'll just compel her."

At that, Stefan turned back around. "This isn't right, Damon. She wouldn't want this."

"Well, once again we cut right to the heart of things, Stefan. I don't give a fuck about what she wants." He inclined his head towards the stairs. "C'mon, BonBon, let's get this party started."

* * *

Bonnie finished setting candles around the study, where they had decided to do the spell. She closed her eyes for a second, and lit the candles instantly. Stefan entered the room and paused, looking around. "We can't do this, Bonnie. You know we can't."

Without looking at him, Bonnie replied, "What I know is that my best friend is changing into the kind of monster that she never wanted to be. What I know is that I might have found a way to save her, which is something I was not able to do for my mother. Remind to thank Elijah someday for not telling me about this spell when your brother turned Abby."

"Damon is going to die."

She looked up at him from her place on the floor. "And I'm sorry about that." She dropped her eyes. "Well, I'm not actually that sorry."

Damon came into the room, unbuttoning his shirt and taking it off. "Don't you dare let him talk you out of this, Bonnie Bennett. If you start having an attack of conscience, just remember all the crappy things I have done to you, and you'll do just fine."

"Trust me, I'm keeping all of that in mind." She knelt near a spot in the middle of the room. "You can lay down right here. You think you have enough of Elena's blood in your system?"

"Oh, yes." Damon kept his eyes on Stefan as he made himself comfortable on the floor. "It was deeelicious. And after I compelled Elena to go to sleep, I sent Jeremy to go get ice cream. Figured you will all need ice cream to celebrate with when Elena totally fails to become a vampire."

"You know, I didn't really need you to take your shirt off."

"Just thought I give you one last thrill, witch."

"Stop it, Damon. Just stop," Stefan said quietly.

"If this makes you uncomfortable, Stef, you don't have to watch. Go make yourself a sandwich or something. This won't take long."

Bonnie placed her hand on Damon's chest and closed her eyes. She began to chant, "Tis mattos dominex statis . . . "

Stefan came over and crouched beside Damon. "You don't have to, Damon. We can help her through her transition. But if you do this, and it doesn't work . . . she can't lose you either, brother."

"You're messing up the witch's concentration, Stefan. Would you kindly stop talking?"

"Damon," Stefan said. "Please. I don't want to be without my brother."

"She didn't ask for this, Stef," Damon answered him quietly. "Vampires. Of all the stupid things." He gave a short laugh. "She never asked for vampires. She sure as hell doesn't want to be one. We brought this into her life."

"What's going on here?" Elena stood in the doorway, rubbing her eyes, and yawning. "I woke up, but I don't even remember falling asleep. I feel kind of weird. Am I supposed to feel this weird?" She stopped suddenly, taking in the candles, and Damon in the middle with Bonnie and Stefan on either side of him.

"What -" She walked into the room, stepping around the candles. "What is this?" She looked at Bonnie and then at Stefan, who wouldn't meet her eyes. "Damon?"

"Just a little slumber party game, Elena. Nothing to worry about. Haven't you ever played 'light as a feather, stiff as a board' before? Next, we are going to freeze our bras and talk about cute boys."

"Bonnie?" Elena asked, a noted of uncertainty in her voice.

"Damon, you might want to try compelling her again," Bonnie said, very quietly.

Damon sat up, and beckoned. "So, Elena, c'mere here for sec."

Elena backed away from them. "No. I don't know what you guys are up to, but whatever it is, just . . . no."

"Elena," Stefan began, standing up and putting his hand on her arm. "Nobody is going to do anything. Everything is going to be alright."

"Well, everything would have been alright if you had stayed asleep the way you were supposed to. Clearly, I'm losing my touch," Damon grumbled.

"This has to do with my transition, doesn't it? You are all trying to stop it. And if you didn't want me to know . . ." Elena looked down at Damon on the ground, and then up at Stefan in horror. "Why would you let them do this?"

Stefan threw his hands up in defeat. "Elena- "

"No," Elena, said firmly. She came into the room and knelt near Bonnie. There were tears in her eyes, as she said, "I'm so sorry, Bonnie." Before anyone could stop her, Elena bent over Bonnie, grabbed her by the hair, and sank her teeth into Bonnie's neck.

"Elena!" Stefan grabbed her and pulled her from her friend. Elena wiped the blood from her mouth, and pushed away from Stefan.

"There," she said, quietly. "Now we can all stop being ridiculous."

Elena stood up and walked slowly out of the room. Damon and Stefan looked at each other, and then at Bonnie, holding a hand to her bloody neck.

"Well, damn," Damon remarked, looking back towards the doorway. "I guess that's that, then." He turned to Bonnie. "After you stop bleeding, we're going to need you to spell us a new daylight ring."

The front door slammed shut, making Bonnie jump.

"That's probably not good," said Stefan, before he vamp sped outside.

Bonnie rose to follow him, but Damon stopped her.

"Give the lovebirds a second," he said. "You want me to do something about that?" Damon indicated her bleeding neck.

Bonnie recoiled from him. "I think your blood has caused enough trouble in this town. Among my friends, and in my family," she choked out.

"Fine, have it your way, witch. Hope it doesn't smart too bad."

"I'm getting used to the feeling," Bonnie responded. "I just never thought I'd see my best friend -"

"Use you as a blood bag? Yeah, and she probably feels really lousy about it, too. So let's not make things worse, 'kay? Everything is already overwhelming for Elena. She doesn't need your judgey eyes laying on the guilt."

"Don't worry about me. All sunshine and smiles here." Bonnie brushed past him and made her way out of the house. After a pause, Damon followed her, not bothering to put his shirt back on.

Elena stood very still in the front yard, her head tilted up at the sky. Stefan stood a few feet away, every line in his body tense as he watched her.

"So many stars," Elena breathed. "So many." She whirled around to face Damon and Bonnie, but addressed herself to Damon. "You never told me there were so many stars."

"Well, now you know." Damon circled Elena warily. "How you feeling, cupcake?"

"Weird," Elena responded shortly, and then looked back up at the sky. "It's the same sky as yesterday. But it's not. Not really anymore. It's never really going to be the same sky for me again." She sank to her knees in the grass. Her hair had worked its way loose from her ponytail, and was streaming dark down her back. "I'm not even cold. I thought I would feel cold. It's not like anything I thought."

Stefan cautiously moved closer to her, and she smiled up at him. "I'm okay, you know, Stefan. No need to be scared of the vampire girl."

"I know," replied Stefan, his eyes never leaving her face. "I know you are going to be okay. Everything is going to be okay."

"So," said Damon, "while you are admiring the beauties of the night, we might want to address some practical new baby vamp matters."

"I think I know the basics by now, Damon," Elena replied. "I doubt there are too many more surprises for me."

"Good, then I can sum up." He turned to Bonnie, who was keeping her distance a few feet away from the trio of vampires before her. "Firstly, our dear pal Bonnie is going to spell you a daylight ring. But not just one ring, we're going to have her do you a whole line of jewelry. You are going to have the works - bracelet, necklace, anklet, belt buckle . . . heck, even a couple of toe rings."

"Why?" Bonnie asked him.

"It's a trick I learned from Katherine. Always have a backup for your backups and then more backups for that one."

"Emily made several pieces for Katherine. Some were actually just decoys." Stefan added, "She often wore more than one at a time."

"Okay, I can do that," Bonnie agreed.

"I don't need all of that, guys," Elena said. She was staring off into the woods, her head cocked, listening to the noises of the night.

"Have you met you? Yes, you certainly do," Damon said with a snort.

"It'll take me a couple of days to find the right pieces," Bonnie interjected.

"Well, you can start tonight with the lapis ring I have in a box in my bedroom." Damon told her. At Stefan's startled look, he added, "What? I had one made up for Elena some time ago."

"That was presumptuous of you, brother," Stefan said, with a slight growl in his voice.

"Okay, have _you_ met her? Girlfriend has a death wish a mile wide."

Stefan and Bonnie both glared at him, and he said, "Oh, please. Like none of you thought this day was pretty much inevitable. Am I the only who takes any precautions around here? Elena is just lucky I haven't been slipping my blood into her breakfast cereal on a daily basis."

"And secondly," he continued, ignoring their offended looks, "you, my vampire princess, need to feed, Like _now_."

At the reminder, Elena's face went soft as she looked over at Bonnie. "I'm sorry, Bonnie."

Bonnie smiled at her, and her hand went back to her neck."It's okay, Elena. Really."

"Not for that, Bonnie," Elena said, her hand indicating Bonnie's neck.

Elena went very still, as she cocked her head and met Bonnie's eyes. "For this."

As she began to move towards her friend, Stefan and Damon both went into action, holding her back.

"Nuh uh, not killing Bonnie tonight. She hasn't spelled your ring yet," Damon said, as he gritted his teeth. Elena struggled against both of the brothers. "Damn, you are strong." There was a note of wonder in Damon's voice, as he glanced over at Stefan. Stefan seemed equally surprised.

"Elena . . . Elena stop!" Stefan pleaded.

Elena pulled free of Damon and Stefan, and was at at Bonnie's side in a split second. Damon hurtled towards her, knocking her to the ground.

"Now, Stefan!" He said, struggling to hold her down. Stefan grabbed Bonnie and vamp sped her away into the house. Elena was free of Damon quickly, but instead of going after Bonnie and Stefan, she stopped suddenly. She looked back at Damon, her face distant and drawn . . . and then she turned and disappeared into the trees.

"Well," Damon stayed on his knees looking after her. "There goes our girl."


	2. Chapter 2

"Probably not a good idea for you to come back here. No, she's fine . . . we just don't know how this is all going to affect her yet. Yeah, I'm sorry, too, Jeremy. But your sister loves you, and she wants you to stay home where it's safest. And Jeremy," Stefan paused, his face grim. "If she shows up there tonight, whatever she might say - don't invite her in. Okay? Just trust me." Stefan pushed END on his phone and then looked at Damon and Bonnie across the kitchen table.

"One of us should stay here in case she comes back."

"And one of us should go to the Gilbert House in case she goes there first," Damon finished for him, standing up. "I'm on it."

"No," said Stefan, rising. "I'll go. You stay here, and get that ring for Bonnie." He turned towards Bonnie, who was still shaking just slightly. His voice gentle, as he said to her, "You're going to be okay."

"Of course, she is," Damon said, as he moved to the cabinet. "I make a mean cup of tea. My tea is so good for what ails you, that I'm practically British."

Stefan nodded, and then left.

Bonnie sat in silence for a minute as Damon busied himself with the microwave and the tea bag. He sat a cup in front her with a flourish. "Now tell me that this isn't the best cup you have ever had. Chamomile and lemon and a whole bucket full of girly herbs."

"I blame you for this, Damon. It's irrational, and I know it that it is. I know I should blame Klaus. But there were no vampires in our lives before you decided to come back to Mystic Falls," Bonnie said, sinking her head into her hands. "And now my closest friends are undead, my mother . . . my mother as well. And Elena-" She looked at him, "You and I are not friends, Damon."

"I don't need you to be my friend, Bonnie. But Elena needs you to be hers." He paused, and then continued, "Besides, you think I don't blame myself for what has happened to Elena? I failed her. I left town and she _died_. Meredith may have given her my blood, Rebekah may have caused the accident, and Stefan may have made the worst decision of his un-life by saving _Matt Fucking Donovan_, but I am the one who left after promising to never leave her again." His voice broke, as he sat down across from her.

Bonnie looked up at Damon with tears in her eyes. "I don't know that I can do this."

"Oh, you will do this, Bonnie Bennett. Have no doubt about that," Damon said, his voice serious and hard as he met her eyes. "You are not giving up on her. None of us are. Now drink your damn tea, and stop sniveling."

* * *

It was over an hour later when Stefan brought a subdued and bloody Elena back to the boarding house. Her pajama shorts and tank top in tatters, Elena stood in the doorway and stared at Damon with wide dark eyes.

Abby appeared behind him on the steps, and said very gently, "Elena. Come upstairs with me, and we'll get you cleaned up."

Head bowed, Elena brushed past Damon, saying softly, "I do remember, you know. I remember everything."

Damon turned, and grabbed her arm, "I know you do. But we aren't going to discuss it."

She hesitated, looking back at Stefan, then nodded to Damon and pulled away to go upstairs.

Stefan said, with a troubled look, "Is there something else I should know about, Damon?"

Damon shook his head. "Nothing, brother. But we do need to talk."

Stefan came into the living room and sat down, running a hand through his hair. "You're hiding something, but I'm too tired to argue with you. When did Abby get here?"

"Bonnie called her right after you left. Obviously, Bonnie couldn't stay around here herself, and she thought they could bond - baby vamp to baby vamp." Damon took a swig from his glass of bourbon and then sat in a chair across from his brother. "Elena could use somebody maternal right now. And Abby is kind of maternal. The closest we've got."

"She needs Caroline." Stefan said, weariness evident in his voice.

"Yeah, well . . . just got off the phone with Liz, and Caroline is in a bad way. Shook up after Tyler's death, and on the run from the Council. Liz has her stashed in a motel in Tennessee until we can get the Council off her back."

"Yet another thing to worry about." Stefan leaned back in his chair, his eyes closed.

"No worries at all, brother. Without Ric's evil alter ego controlling them, the Council is barely a threat. And they listen to me, you know. Ric did us a huge favor by only outing Tyler and Caroline, and failing entirely to mention the connection regarding Salvatores and vampires."

"Why didn't he out us, do you think?"

"He still needed us around to keep Elena safe. Until the time came to kill us himself, I guess. It means that I'm still the head of the Council, and it's past time to do some damage control. I've been on the phone for an hour calling up the the members and expressing my shock at the sheriff and mayor's duplicity. _'Vampires and werewolves in our town? Horrors!_'" He took another drink before continuing, "Calling an emergency meeting for tomorrow, where a grieving Carol and Liz will throw themselves on the mercy of the Council etcetera etcetera. And I'm going to present them with Ric's dead body, proving to them that he was an evil vampire not to be trusted in any way, and then we will move forward from there. The fact that Tyler and Caroline never left a trail of bodies or mayhem around town will work in our favor."

"About that . . ."

Damon groaned. "Okay, how bad was it? Did you already take care of the bodies?"

"There was only one. Jeremy did what we asked and refused to invite her in . . . but when she started to pull the house down around him, he had no choice but to come out onto the porch." Stefan's face was grim.

Damon went still. "Is he dead?"

"Temporarily. Meredith took him to her apartment to wait for his ring to bring him back."

"And when you say, 'pull the house down'?"

"There's nothing left standing, Damon. It took Elena all of seven minutes to demolish the entire structure, and rip out her brother's throat."

Damon was quiet as he stared into the bottom of the glass. "And you?"

Stefan said nothing for a second, and then, "I wanted to help her."

Damon looked up. "And you will, brother."

"No, Damon . . . I wanted to help her rip Jeremy's throat out. As it was, I -"

"You fed on him." Damon said, no judgement in his voice.

Stefan nodded, before burying his head in his hands again.

Damon sighed. "Damnit, Stefan. It's like the blind leading the blind. Thank God, Elena and Jeremy live in the world's least observant neighborhood."

Stefan laughed, but it wasn't a happy sound. "I still had to go door-to-door compelling the neighbors."

"Well, we can fix this. Nobody on the Council knows when Ric actually died, so we will tell them he pulled the house down, and hurt Elena and Jeremy in the process, and that we have Dr. Fell taking care of them. That will cover Elena's absence from school." His brow furrowed, Damon asked, "She really pulled the house down? The whole house?"

Stefan nodded. "I don't know how she did it. And there was no stopping her at all. She's stronger than me, Damon."

Damon just shook his head in wonderment. "This doesn't make any sense, Stefan. I may not be the world's foremost expert on the newly turned, but I've seen my fair share. This should not be happening. I mean, we expected a few screw ups. I knew we'd probably have a couple of dead pizza boys and girl scouts on our hands in the first week, but I never thought we wouldn't be able to control her at all."

"I don't know." Stefan rose from his chair. "We aren't going to solve this tonight." He looked at Damon, and added, " I do know that I'm going to rebuild Jeremy and Elena's house, though."

Damon stood up and put his drink down on the side table. "Well, that's great, Stefan. It's good for you young people to have a hobby. Now let's go check on Trogdor The Burninator. I've got a ring for her."

Upstairs, a freshly washed and scrubbed Elena was sitting on Stefan's bed, while Abby was putting Elena's torn clothes into the waste basket. Elena looked up at the brothers when they entered. "I heard you talking," she said, listlessly. "I know there's something wrong with me. I'm not _right_."

Damon smiled at her. "Well, maybe you're right, and it's just the whole rest of the vampire world who is wrong, who is to say? No judgement here." He walked over to her, pulling a ring out of his pocket. "There you go, the first in your new line of fancy blue jewelry."

She took the ring and looked at it for a second. "It's just like yours. And Stefan's."

"Smaller, of course, and with an 'E', but yes. Essentially the same."

Stefan looked at him in surprise. "You used the Salvatore crest?"

Damon shrugged. "I figure we have a better claim on her than even the Gilberts these days. And I didn't know if the Petrovas ever had a crest. At the time, I had no interest in asking Katherine."

Elena slid the ring on her finger. "It's okay. It doesn't matter to me."

Stefan paused, before asking, "When did you have it made?"

Damon said with a sigh, "Does it really matter, Stef?"

"When, Damon? When did you decide that it was inevitable that my girlfriend would become a vampire?"

"The day after she made Rose take her to Richmond. You were stuck in that damn tomb, and it seemed pretty obvious to me that I wasn't always going to be able to save her from her kamikaze missions." He laughed bitterly. "I guess I was right about that."

Abby stood in the doorway, hesitantly. She asked Elena, "Would you like me to stay in here with you tonight?" She pointedly ignored both of the Salvatore brothers, only looking at her daughter's friend.

Elena smiled at her for a second. "No -"

"It's okay," Stefan said quickly, "I'll be here with her." He took Elena's hand in his. She didn't turn to look at him, but she didn't pull her hand away, either.

Damon rolled his eyes, and ushered Abby through the door. "It's time for the young lovers to reconnect, I think. And you and I are decidedly in the way. C'mon, and I'll show you to a guest room. For your shower, do you normally use one towel or two?"

* * *

Hours later, Damon lay in his bed, cursing the fact that he hadn't thought to move a mattress down into the cellar for himself. Stupid vampire super hearing.

He could hear Elena shift in bed next to Stefan. He could hear how restless she was, even how rapid her breathing was. He was just as in tune with her every movement as he had been when she was human. He didn't know why he had always thought that would change whenever she eventually turned. But nothing had changed. Not for him.

"Can't you rest?" He heard Stefan ask her sleepily.

"I don't know how you can."

"Hey . . . it's okay. It's okay."

Damon heard Elena sob. "It's not."

"Shhhhh . . . I'm here."

"I know you are."

They went quiet, and Damon tried not to imagine what they could be doing. When he realized that they were kissing, he got up from his bed as silently as possible, got dressed and went downstairs. This night was going to require a lot of liquor.

Damon awoke the next morning on the couch to see Stefan sitting in a chair across from him. "Morning, brother."

"You were productive last night." Stefan tilted his head towards the three empty bottles on the floor, and raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah, well. We all go through the stages of grief in our own way, don't we?"

Stefan gave him a small smile. "I suppose so."

"Uneventful night with the newborn?"

"Not exactly." Stefan paused, and then continued, "You know she's never even asked about Jeremy. Not even once."

Damon looked towards the upstairs, and then put a finger to his lips. "Not here. If you want to have this conversation, let's do it outside."

They both rose and walked out to the patio, Damon buttoning his shirt as he went.

"Okay, now . . . what are you trying to say, Stefan?"

Stefan looked up at the sky and gave a short laugh. "What I'm trying to say, is that she's isn't her anymore. That is not my Elena. I hear her voice, and it sounds like her, but what she is saying, and what she is not saying . . ."

Damon shook his head. "Don't do this, brother."

"I don't know what to do."

"What to do? . . . what you do, is _love_ her," Damon said, incredulity in his voice. "It's that simple."

"Love her?" Stefan's face began to crumple. "I don't even know her."

Damon grabbed his brother by his shirtfront. "Do not say that. Do not even _think_ that. That is still Elena up there, do you hear me? That is still your girl, the one who chose you. And if you even _begin_ to doubt that, I swear to God, I will stake you myself, Stefan. I will stake you, and I will put your body in the ground, and I won't even be the least bit sorry." His voice began to rise. "You love her, damn it. She went through hell for you, and you love her."

Stefan went quiet, and then pushed his brother away. "I know. You are right, and I know it."

"What happened up there last night?"

"I can't . . . I'm not even sure. She got inside my head, Damon." Stefan turned his back and looked out over the back lawn. "I don't know how she did it, but she got into my head and she made me see things. I couldn't get into somebody's head for the first decade after I turned, so how could she make me see those things on her very first night?"

"What things?" Damon asked him, quietly.

Stefan turned and met his eyes. "You. The two of you. You kissing her on the front porch of the Gilbert house. Kissing each other at a motel. Holding hands in a bed." He ran a hand through his hair and looked away. "Meeting you the night her parents died. You standing in front of her, telling her that you love her, and that you won't be selfish with her."

Stefan sat down on the edge of the balustrade. "She put these things inside my head, and now I can't shake them. I don't even know if they are real, but they are inside me now."

Damon looked at his brother. "They are real. But I'm sorry you had to know them."

A tremendous noise from inside the house drew their attention, and a chunk of stone crashed out of the window and landed at their feet. Entering, they saw Elena in a fury, the ruins of the couch around her, her hands ripping the granite mantlepiece off the wall of the fireplace, and hurling it towards the windows. Seeing them, Elena turned away, her hands covering her face.

"No!" she said in a wail. "No!"

Damon came over to her, and pried her hands away from her face. She was streaked with tears and granite dust. "Hey," he said gently, "Hey, look at me. C'mon now, look at me."

Elena raised her wet eyes to his, as he cradled her face in his hands.

Damon asked her, "What's all this about, huh? Have a bad dream up there? Did the little baby have a nightmare?"

"You're a bastard." She tore away from him, and sat down on the floor. He sat down beside her, and took her dust encrusted hands in his own.

"Tell me something I don't know."

Elena began to laugh, but it turned into a sob. "I didn't put anything in his head, Damon. I didn't. I swear I didn't." Her shoulders began to heave and shake. "I would never. I _didn't_."

"I know. I know you didn't." Damon looked back over his shoulder at Stefan. "Little help here, brother?"

Stefan came closer, but he didn't kneel beside them. He looked over at Abby, standing silent in the doorway. "Abby, could you . . . would you mind bringing Elena some breakfast? I'm sorry, it's just that we need to take the edge off, I think."

"Not a problem," Abby said, quietly as she turned away towards the cellar.

Stefan bent down and reached out for Elena, but she pushed him away. "You don't even know me," she said. "I'm not your Elena anymore, and you don't even know me."

"Elena," Stefan said, a pleading note in his vote.

"No." She laughed, harshly, "Maybe we need to come up with something else to call me, since I'm not Elena anymore."

Damon took her hands back in his, and pulled her into his lap. "Fine. We'll call you something else. How do you feel about 'Cheryl'? I knew a stripper named Cheryl once. Lovely gal. You would have liked her."

Elena choked back a sob, and buried her head in Damon's shoulder. Frustrated, Stefan stood up, and left the room. The sounds of Elena's sobs continuing to echo behind him.


	3. Chapter 3

"Elijah."

"Damon."

"Have you come to take a peek at our new baby vamp?"

"I have come to speak to Elena, yes."

Damon leaned back away from the door, and called out, "Elena! You have a gentleman caller!"

At vamp speed, Elena appeared at his shoulder. "I heard," she said, quietly. "Please come in, Elijah."

Damon stepped aside to let Elijah enter, commenting, "Go ahead. But I am warning you, she's a feisty one today. Skipped her nap and everything."

Elijah walked into the living room, and glanced around, surveying the damage Elena had done that morning to the fireplace mantle.

"So I can see," he said, turning around to face Elena. "I had heard that you were having some difficulties with your transition."

Damon stepped around Elijah to sit on the half of the couch that Elena had not completely ripped wide open before she had torn up the fireplace mantle. "You heard? What, are you listening outside our windows now?"

Elena sat down beside him. She looked down at her hands, clutched tightly in her lap.

Elijah lowered himself down gingerly in a wingback chair, as though testing to see if it was still intact. "Dr. Fell informed me."

Elena looked up and said, "Meredith? I didn't know that you two knew each other."

"Yes, well . . . that is partly why I am here." He looked steadily at Elena, and continued, "First though, I do need to apologize on behalf of my family. I hope you know that I had no idea of my sister's intention that night."

Elena smiled sadly at him. "I realized that, of course."

Damon raised an eyebrow. "Well, I didn't. Your faith in Originals is so touching, Elena."

Elijah continued, ignoring Damon, "I would never have wanted this for you, Elena. I would have tried to find another way."

"I appreciate that," Elena replied, her eyes falling to her lap again.

"That being said, I feel that I should tell you that the blood in your system the night that you turned was mine."

"What?" Damon asked, genuinely surprised. "How is that even possible?"

"Dr. Fell and I have been in contact for some time. When I first heard that she was using the blood of vampires to heal her patients, I became quite concerned. I went to Dr. Fell and expressed my belief that she was creating a situation that could possibly lead to a disaster for the humans in this town."

"And that discussion ended with you helping her to create such a disaster? Or did she just bloodjack you the way she did me?"

"Naturally not." Elijah looked over at him, with a smile. "At that time, I simply persuaded Dr. Fell to destroy her remaining supply of your blood. However, I was impressed with the young lady's passion for her work . . . and with her ingenuity in preserving human life. She is quite intelligent, you know."

"Really? Hadn't noticed. Crazy, yes. Smart? Not so much," Damon said.

"About a week after our discussion at the hospital, I received a letter from Dr. Fell outlining a proposal . . . she wished to study vampire blood and see if there was a way to isolate the component that enabled the blood to heal humans. If it could be isolated - "

"Then it could be synthesized," Stefan interjected from the hallway.

"Stefan. Why don't you join us?" Elijah said, turning towards him.

Stefan crossed the room to lean against the arm of the chair farthest from Elena.

Looking at Stefan, Damon said, "Elijah was just explaining to us how he is the one who properly gets the credit for turning Elena."

"From what I understand, half of the town was actually responsible for turning Elena into a vampire. It seems that we all had a part in it." He looked at Elena, and his eyes softened. "And my sister Rebekah most of all."

Elena met his eyes, and then looked away. Her fingers twisted in her lap convulsively. Damon eyed her with wariness, and then put a hand on her knee. She became very still.

Damon glanced over at Stefan, and then back to Elijah. "So you decided to fund the pyscho doctor's quest for the Nobel?"

"I did not send her money, but I did send her a sample of my blood in exchange for her promise to only use it in her lab research, and never to heal another patient. Obviously, she broke that promise when she realized Elena was going to die of a cerebral hemorrhage."

"Why your blood? Why didn't she simply ask one of us?" Stefan asked, quietly.

"Because she and I both believed that Original blood would be the most effective for study. Our blood is the purest and strongest, the most undiluted and untainted. I wanted her to succeed because I thought her research was worthwhile. If she truly could synthesize the element in our blood that can heal, without the component that also creates new vampires . . . well, I hoped that it could be a way for my family to make some reparations for the centuries of sorrow and tragedy that we have caused humanity." Elijah finished by saying, "Of course, it has not turned out as anticipated."

"Okay, fine. So Elena was turned using your extra fancy Original recipe blood. Thanks for telling us, we'll take it from here," Damon said, waving a hand towards the door.

Elijah smiled sadly. "Well, it is my 'extra fancy blood,' as you call it, which is causing Elena so many issues with her transition."

Elena, startled, began to rise, but Damon put a hand on her shoulder and guided her back down to the couch. "Easy there, tiger," he said. "What exactly do you mean?'

"You have known two other vampires turned with Original blood, Damon."

"Actually three, counting Tyler," responded Damon, cautiously. "So what?"

"Hybrids do not count. They are only half vampire, and at the heart, they remain werewolf. But Sage and Mary Porter . . . Did you notice nothing unusual about them at all?"

"They were both very strong, I suppose," Damon answered, "And they were both unusually wicked in bed, now that I think about it. Mary did this thing with her toes . . . " He smirked.

Stefan snorted, and Elena rolled her eyes before pinching Damon's arm.

"Ow!" He rubbed his arm. "Speaking of very strong -"

"Exactly," replied Elijah. "Sage and Mary Porter were not strong simply because they were very old vampires, turned long ago. They were already that strong the very day they were created. As is Elena. And there will be other side effects, too, I'm afraid to say."

Elena asked, "What kind of side effects?'

"Pure Original blood is a lot for your system to handle. Your emotions would be heightened as a vampire, anyway, but now . . . well, I'm afraid that you will be very volatile for quite some time. Also, the various parlour tricks we vampires can do - mind control, implanting dreams - those will all be stronger and easier. They will come faster for Elena, as well."

Stefan turned and looked at Elena. "That does explain some things that were troubling us."

She met his eyes for a second and then turned away.

Damon interjected, "Wait a minute . . . I knew both of those girls, and yeah, they were good with the parlour tricks, but neither of them were all that 'volatile'. Nothing like the Hulking out that Elena has been doing in the past twenty four hours. I mean, Scary Mary could be a bit moody, perhaps, and there was that time when she threw me out a window, but she generally left the house standing upright. And Sage was one of the most well controlled vampires I have ever known."

"Reaching that level of control must have cost Sage dearly. After my brother daggered Finn, Sage tried several times to free him. After the last occasion when she failed yet again to overcome Niklaus, she leveled an entire village. And then went to the next town over and ate most of a monastery." Elijah paused, and then said, "It was . . . impressive. It must have taken Sage centuries to attain mastery over her responses. Mary Porter must have also worked through the worst of her control issues by the time you knew her."

"So it's like being a ripper," Stefan remarked. He looked over at Elena again. "And we need to be concerned about that."

Elijah shook his head. "No, the level of bloodlust commonly experienced by those called rippers is not likely to be Elena's problem, and it was never Sage's, either. Blood does not control us, our emotions do. If you think that you have your emotional highs and low as vampires, you have no actual idea of what it is like to have Original blood in your system. Elena is now capable of depths of emotions that the two of you cannot dream of. My siblings and I have spent a thousand years desperately trying not to feel." He glanced over at Elena, whose head was bowed. "We do not always succeed."

Stefan and Damon looked at each other over Elena's head. Their faces were both grim.

"We can handle this," Damon insisted, turning towards Elijah.

Stefan nodded, saying, "It's very helpful to know what we are dealing with, of course, but Elena has an eternity to figure all of this out, and we have an eternity to help her with it."

"Of course. And I have no doubt that the two of you will stay by her side. However, I do continue to feel responsibility towards Elena. Unlike most of my siblings, I have been very careful to not turn anyone. Elena is the only surviving descendant from my line." Elijah rose and walked over to where Elena was sitting on the couch. He pulled a card from inside his coat pocket and placed it in her hand.

"This number will reach me anywhere in the world." He met her eyes solemnly. "If you call, I will come. You are family now."

Elena took the card and turned it over. On the back, in Elijah's flowing script, it read 'Always and Forever'. She looked up at him, and her eyes teared. "When will I stop being this way? I don't want this. I can't feel like this anymore."

"Don't turn it off, Elena," Elijah told her, "Your humanity is valuable. You must try to hold onto that, even if it is a challenge." He looked over at the Salvatore brothers whose faces bore identical expressions of concern. "And there are those who love you more than their own life, who will never let you forget how important it is to stay as human as you can."

Elena dropped the card onto her lap, as the tears fell down her cheeks. Her hand was shaking as she brushed the tears away. With her other hand she clutched the sleeve of Elijah's coat. "Where are you going?" she asked, with a catch in her voice.

"I am returning to New York," he responded, briefly covering her hand with his own. He smiled at her gently, as she released his sleeve "But I will come back to Mystic Falls in a few weeks." Elijah stood and moved towards the front door.

"Don't feel that you have to," Damon said. He was already standing by the door, and had opened it to show Elijah out. "Personally, I think we have had enough of you Originals to last us several lifetimes."

Elijah hesitated. "Well, as to that . . . my sister has decided to stay here. I have tried repeatedly to convince her to come with me, but she feels more at home in Mystic Falls than anywhere else. Also, she apparently has a Physics test on Tuesday - and she is oddly enthusiastic about going to Prom in a few months."

"Fantastic," said Damon. "We'll be sure to make her feel very welcome. Stefan will even save her a dance."

"And of course, it's very hard to predict what Niklaus will decide," Elijah added.

Eyes wide, Elena exclaimed, "Klaus? But -"

Stefan crossed the room quickly and came to the door. "Klaus is dead. We know he is dead."

"I saw him burn, dude. Your brother is no more," said Damon.

Surprised, Elijah looked at all three of them. "You must have known. Why did you think you were all still alive?"

"We assumed he was lying about our bloodline," Stefan said."Wasn't he lying?"

"No, Niklaus was the originator of your line, of that there is no question." He paused, "But as to his continued survival, you should probably check with your friend Bonnie." Elijah smiled at Elena again, "Do not be concerned. My brother, while upset over your turning, does not blame you or any of your friends for its occurrence. You do not need to fear his wrath or his involvement in your life any longer. He has no interest in you, and you are free of him, Elena." He looked back at the brothers, "Good day, Salvatores."

Closing the door behind Elijah, Damon grimaced. "Bonnie Bennett. Of course. Conducting irresponsible magic since 2009."

"Don't be so quick to judge, brother," said Stefan. "Whatever Bonnie may have done, it has resulted in saving all of our lives."

"So Klaus lives on again. Forgive me if I'm not doing cartwheels about that, Stefan."

They both turned at the sound of a crash behind them. Elena was standing in the middle of the room, surrounded by broken glass, the remnants of the drinks cart all around her. She was staring at the cuts on her hands as they healed.

"Yeah, that was my favorite decanter set, Elena. Seriously, do we need to keep you in a padded room?"

With a sob, Elena took a step forward, and then collapsed onto the floor. Stefan was instantly beside her, cradling her in his arms. She shoved him away and fled from the room and vanished up the stairs.

"Your turn, brother," Damon said, as he stooped down and begin to pick up the shards of glass. "I handled the last tantrum, when she tried to eat the mailman a couple of hours ago."

Just as Stefan began to climb the stairs, Elena appeared again at the top of the staircase. "There is another body."

"What?" Damon turned in disbelief. "How could you possibly have killed someone between the living room and the upstairs?"

"It was last night. I . . . I just remembered."

Damon gave a heavy sigh. "Where? I'll go take care of it."

"I don't know. It was . . it was dark, and I was angry. A parking lot somewhere. I don't even know if it was a man or a woman. I think they were small. It could have been a child." Elena's voice was blank, without expression. She stood on the steps, looking at them for a second, and then turned and went back up the stairs.

Stefan shook his head, before saying, "She's turned it off, Damon."

"She hasn't," Damon said, "Trust me, I can tell. She's just pretending because that's easier." He bent down again to continue cleaning up the glass, and then looked up at his brother. "What are you waiting for? A gilded invitation? Go and take care of your girl, Stefan."

Stefan stood on the bottom stair, hesitant. "Abby is up there with her."

"Yeah, so? She needs you."

"I don't know that she does." Stefan stepped down off the stair and back towards his brother. "There's a reason why she put visions of the two of you in my head, Damon."

"She didn't do that on purpose, Stef. You can't be angry with her for that."

"No, and that's what makes it worse. They are in my head because they were in her head, and she felt so strongly about them that they projected into me." Stefan took a deep breath. "I don't think she needs me right now, brother. I think she needs you."

* * *

Stefan left to go check on Jeremy, and Damon went upstairs after clearing all of the glass from the living room floor. Damon stood in the doorway of Abby's room and watched her pack her things back into her overnight bag. "Well, this is totally not a surprise. I can't believe you lasted an entire day."

"I do feel for her," Abby said, not turning around. "She's Bonnie's friend, and she's the daughter of Miranda. And I thought I could stay here. But I just can't." She zipped up her bag, and then faced him. "Every time you open your mouth, I remember you snapping my neck."

She hoisted the bag onto her shoulder and then pushed past him. "Tell Elena that I'm sorry. I hope things get better for her."

Damon called after her as she walked down the hall, "Fine. Be that way. Leaving is the only thing you have _ever_ been good at."

He continued down the hall to Stefan's room, and then paused when he realized that Elena was curled up on the bed in the guest room beside Abby's.

"Hey, there. Whatcha doin'?"

"Damon."

"Well, at least you aren't crying. That's a nice change. Seems like you are only crying or killing nowadays. Or destroying my stuff. You are the reason I can't have nice things, Elena."

"Then I would think you'd prefer the crying."

"Honestly, I have no preference. So," he paused, "Abby just left."

"I know. Obviously." Elena sat up on the bed, and he came over and sat beside her.

"Four vampires were too much in one house, anyway. No privacy." He pointed to his ear. "Super vampire hearing is a curse, as you have probably discovered."

"One of the many curses, I suppose." She picked idly at the bedspread. "Stefan left, too."

"Difference being, that he's coming back. He only went to check on Jeremy."

"I killed Jeremy."

"Yeah, you did. Happens to the best of us." Damon covered her hand with his, and laced his fingers around hers. "You want to call him, see if he's doing okay?"

Elena looked at him. "I killed Jeremy."

"Yes . . . with a huge asterisk. Join the club. Doesn't mean that you can't talk to him. Say you're sorry."

She looked down where their fingers were entwined. "I killed him and he's dead. You can't talk to people after they are dead."

"Okay, now you are just being creepy, Elena. We're all dead, you know. If you think that makes much of a difference, then you haven't been paying attention."

She didn't seem to be listening to him at all, she was just looking down at their hands and stroking his fingers with hers. Damon cleared his throat. "So . . . we'll just table that discussion. it looks like you have moved all of your things in here. Something wrong with Stefan's room?"

"He doesn't want me in there. Not anymore."

"That's not true. He's just adjusting. Stefan will never stop wanting you."

"I'm bad for him to be around. I make him do bad things."

"Good, bad . . . all subjective. Surely you are realizing that."

"He was so close, Damon. He was so close to finding himself again. And now . . . he can't even find me."

"You are right here, Elena." With his free hand, Damon stroked her cheek. "You are still right here, and Stefan is going to realize that."

"He's afraid of me, Damon," Elena whispered. "Not only of what I can do, but of what I can make him feel."

"Don't you dare start crying again, Elena. Because if there's one thing we have learned in the past day, it's that crying leads to 'Elena, smash!' and I happen to like this bedroom suite. It belonged to my mother."

Elena choked back a laugh. "I love you, and you know that, right?"

Damon went very still, and his hand dropped from her face. "Actually, no. I didn't know that."

"I was going to tell you that night. God, I can't believe it was only two nights ago. I was going to tell you that I loved you."

"You chose Stefan."

"Yes, I knew I was going to choose Stefan. But still . . . I wanted you to know that I loved you, too. I don't know why I couldn't say it."

"You left me to die alone in a U-Store-It, Elena." Damon stood up, but Elena held onto his hand and would not let him go. She tugged him back down to the bed.

"I know. I know I did. If it makes you feel better, it just about killed me."

"Well, technically, it did kill you." He pulled his hand free, but remained beside her.

"Funny, isn't it? If I had asked Matt to keep driving in your direction, I might not be a vampire."

"Possibly. Rebekah was pretty determined, though. She would have just found another way that night."

Elena was quiet for a second. "Turning is not my biggest regret of that night. It saved Matt's life, so I can't regret it entirely."

"What is your biggest regret?" He held her gaze until she looked away.

"Leaving you to die alone. Not saying what I should have in my last words to you. That was wrong."

"Yeah, it was." He grabbed her hand again. "So, do you want a do over? Let's pretend we are on the phone again, and now you can say what you really wanted to say."

Elena laughed, and held his hand up to her face. She kissed the inside of his palm gently, and then looked up and said, "I don't think I can. I'm not her anymore. I can't say the things she would. The feelings are the same, but the words aren't."

Damon opened his mouth, but his voice caught in his throat. He pulled his hand away, and stood up. "You need to call Jeremy. You need to call Jeremy and Bonnie and Caroline and even _Matt Fucking Donovan_. You need to remember that you are still her. Stefan and I can't help you if you won't stay connected, Elena." He moved to the doorway.

"Damon."

"Yeah?"

"I let you go that night."

"I'm well aware of that, Elena."

"I let you go, but you are still here. Holding everything together."

"Yeah, well . . . there was a girl once. And I made certain promises to her. She might not feel like the same person anymore, but she's still the same to me." He gave her a small smile. "And I take my promises seriously."

Damon turned to leave, saying over his shoulder, "If you think I'm letting you stay in here with all of this antebellum furniture, you're even crazier than Elijah said you were. Get your stuff. You're sleeping with me tonight."


	4. Chapter 4

Damon carefully disentangled himself from a sleeping Elena the next morning. The girl definitely did not know her own strength yet. And as much he liked having her curled around him, the death grip she had around his waist was downright painful. In all his visions of what Elena was going to be like as a vampire someday, stronger than him had never been a part of it. He liked it, though. Made him think about all the things he could do with a super durable Elena someday. Places, locations, positions. He smirked, and then stroked the side of her cheek. He'd never get tired of watching her in her sleep. The little faces she made, the tiny noises. She was more human when asleep than at any other time these days.

He could hear Stefan moving around downstairs, and dressed quickly and quietly to join him.

"Glad you're back, brother."

"Good morning, Damon." Stefan already had a glass of bourbon in his hand. Damon raised an eyebrow at him.

"Breakfast of champions?"

"Stages of grief, remember?" Stefan replied, before taking a drink.

"Ah, yes. The classic Salvatore process. Stage one, bourbon. Stage two, cheaper whiskey. Stage three, tequila. And I believe stage four is a sorority house. You working your way towards that?"

Stefan responded, "No. Not this time."

"Good. Your last sorority binge ruined my favorite Persian. We already have one person in the house determined to destroy all of my pretty things, I don't need two."

"Abby left, I see."

"Good riddance. But that raises a point . . . yesterday's Council meeting was such a ridiculous disaster that I had to call another one for this morning. Need you to stay with Hulklena and make sure she doesn't tear the house down while I'm gone. I'm thinking about attaching appraisal tags to the really nice stuff so she knows what she can, and can't hurl through the window next time. That mantlepiece was travertine."

"What happened at yesterday's meeting? I thought you had it all in hand, brother. Thought you were the big man in charge, going to make everything all right." Stefan took another swig.

"I didn't even get a chance. Half of the Council were too afraid to show up at Carol's house because they think _she_ is a werewolf. Bunch of blooming idiots. Of course, they are mostly Fells, so that was to be expected."

Stefan raised his eyebrows, but didn't respond.

"So?" Damon asked him. "You staying? Because I wasn't sure after the way you left last night without a word."

"What's there to say? I come home, and Elena is in your bed. I kind of got the message."

Damon sighed. "Seriously, Stef? That's how you are going to play this? We _slept_, Stefan. That's all. Did you honestly think I was going to leave her in a room alone all night? Or jump her the second you left the house?"

Stefan took a deep breath. "After what happened between the two of you in Denver, I don't know what to think. Don't forget that it's now just as vivid a memory for me as it is for the two of you."

"Yeah, well, after last night, I have some brand new memories of my own that I would rather not have."

Stefan sat his drink carefully down on the side table. "She got into your head? What did you see?"

"The truck going into the lake. You choosing to save _Matt Fucking Donovan_. What it was like for Elena to drown. That feeling of her lungs slowly filling with water. The taste of it, all mouldy and leafy and cold as death. Lovely stuff."

Stefan was quiet for a second, and then said, "I wondered when we were going to finally talk about that."

"I don't have time for this. I have to go." Damon grabbed his coat from the back of a chair and shrugged it on. He moved towards the door.

"Damon . . ."

Damon whirled around at vamp speed and stood in front of his brother. "How could you, Stefan? How could you?"

Stefan opened his mouth, but Damon cut him off. "Don't even give me any bullshit about how it was Elena's choice, because if I hear that one more time from you, I'll -" He stopped, and took a breath before continuing in a calmer voice. "I thought that was the one thing I could count on from you. The _one_ thing we would be on the same page about." They locked eyes. "You always choose her, brother. When it comes right down to it, you _have _to choose her."

"I did, Damon," Stefan said, quietly. "We just have different interpretations of what that means."

Damon stepped back, and stood in the middle of the half destroyed living room. After a few seconds of silence, he said, "I have a new couch being delivered today. Don't let Elena eat the delivery guys."

* * *

Damon was playing the piano when Matt arrived and rang the doorbell. He liked to think he would have been better prepared if he hadn't been so focused on getting the phrasing right on Satie's Gnossienne No. 2. As it was, he was barely a beat behind Elena, and just not quite quick enough. He hauled her off Matt's neck, and thrust her behind him.

"Great," Damon said."It's _Matt Fucking Donovan_. Are you _insane_? Are you trying to die?"

Elena clung to his back, and hid her face in his neck. He could feel her heave against him, silently sobbing, her nails digging into the shirt across his shoulders.

"Seriously, dude," Damon continued. "Bad timing."

Matt was on the ground, clutching his bleeding neck with one hand, and a jar of dried herbs in the other. "Sorry . . . I didn't . . ."

"Yeah, yeah. You didn't. Here, give me those." Damon took the jar from him, and held it up to read the label. "Take two tablespoons, mix with hot water, at bedtime and again in the morning. From Abby and Bonnie for Elena, I presume?"

"Yeah," Matt stood up and took a step back. "I think . . . I think I'm going to just go."

"Good idea." Damon smirked at him. "You might want to warn the other humans, 'kay? No unexpected visitors. Like that shouldn't be obvious. Bye bye, now." Damon shut the door as Matt loped off.

He detached Elena from his back. "Okay, it's okay. The Big Bad Busboy has gone away. You're okay. But man, do you have the dumbest friends."

Elena's sob turned into a short laugh. "I do, don't I?" Still shaky, she made her way to the brand new leather couch and sat down, her head in her hands. "Oh, God. I almost killed Matt."

"Yeah, well. He kinda deserved it. I almost didn't try to stop you. If it wasn't for Matt and that idiotic brother of yours, you would have stayed safe in your house the other night, and not out where any Original could get at you. How did he even get over here? I doubt he had any insurance on that truck."

At the mention of her brother, Elena's face went blank, and she stood up. "Going upstairs, I think."

"Hey, wait." Damon reached an arm out to her. "May as well give these a try since Matt risked life and limb to get them to you." He unscrewed the lid of the jar and took a whiff. "Yikes. They smell disgusting. You're going to love them."

They walked to the kitchen, where Elena sat at the table and Damon measured the herbs and put them into a mug of hot water.

"Here you go. Let's just hope these work better than that last batch of Bennett herbs for Ric. Which worked not at all." He sat down across from her.

"Thank you." Elena took a small sip, and made a face. "I have to do this every day?"

"Well, it'll make the witch and her mom feel useful. Which will make me feel less guilty, because I was sort of not nice to either of them."

"When are you ever nice to witches?" Elena gave him a small smile.

"Hey there," Damon said, and smiled at her. "I was nice to Bree. I was _really_ nice to Bree, if you know what I mean. She was the last witch I ever liked. Right up until I ripped her heart out at her bar."

Elena's smile slipped, and her hand stilled while raising the cup. "You did? You never told me."

"Yeah, I doubt that would have gone over well at the time. 'You know, by the way, Elena, I just tore out the heart of my ex-girlfriend for ratting me out to the boyfriend of my brother's best friend who I also killed for what you probably think is very little cause or reason'. Totally would have ruined the road trip vibe we had going on. But I can tell you these things now, because you have so recently joined the prestigious psycho killer club."

"Not your finest hour, I guess." Elena remarked, as she set the cup down.

"I wouldn't say that. I had a goal. Get the tomb open, find Katherine, live happily ever after. All my decisions were made according to one mission. Life seemed pretty clear to me back then."

"It's not clear to you now?"

"Drink your nasty herbs, Elena," Damon said, rising from the table.

Damon's phone rang, and Elena gave a little jump.

"Sorry," she murmured. "Just a little on edge."

Damon looked down at the phone in his hand. "It's your brother. Hey there, Jeremy, how's the throat? Oh, yeah . . . sorry about your house, but you know how these things go. Houses are here one day, gone the next. I would totally invite you to live here, but, well . . . you would have to agree to be a buffet for your sister and my brother pretty much on a daily basis. Twice on Sundays and special occasions." He glanced over at Elena, and noted that she had gone completely rigid.

Damon held the phone out to her. "He'd like to talk to you."

Elena looked at him steadily, not answering him. She drank from her cup, and then looked down at the table.

"Elena, c'mon. You need to talk to him."

She looked up at him again. "Jeremy is dead," she said, quietly, and then rose from the table and left the room.

"Well, that wasn't awkward at all," Damon remarked, before bringing the phone back to his ear.

* * *

Damon found Elena in his room, going through the books piled beside his bed. "Need a little light reading?"

"I was looking for this," she said, holding up 'Gone With The Wind'. "It's been a long time since I read it."

"Me too, actually. So," he remarked lightly, "your brother has been talking to Ric. Ghost Ric, who happens to not be a dick anymore. And Ghost Ric has lots to say. For one thing, Esther is still plotting and scheming from the Other Side. She seems to think that Ric's silver stake may still be in play. So we definitely need to check with Elijah to find out if he has it secured. Oh, and Klaus? It's true that Klaus is very much alive, although Ric didn't mention the how or why or where. And . . ." Damon paused, before saying, "Ric told Jeremy to tell you that Esther didn't lie to you. Your Aunt Jenna really did move on to find peace."

Elena said nothing. She sat on the floor beside the books and flipped through the pages of the one she held in silence.

"Are we going to talk about this whole 'Jeremy is dead' nonsense? Or about the fact that you have shown zero interest in anyone at all?"

Elena looked at him, and then returned her eyes to her book.

"Okay, guess not." He sat on the floor and leaned against his bed. "What's the plan this evening? You sleeping in here with me tonight?"

"I thought I would, actually. That is," she said, "if it's okay. If you want me to."

"Well, Elena, let's see. You steal my covers, you drool on my pillowcases, and, I'm sorry to say, you are definitely a bit of a snorer. I mean, it's cute and all, but . . . "

She laughed, closed the book, and moved over to lean up against him. Damon shifted her into his lap, and then kissed her lightly on the top of her head.

"If it could all be just like this. Just like this, forever, I wouldn't mind being a vampire so much." Elena said, with a sigh.

Damon stroked her hair, and replied, "It could be, you know."

"No." She twisted around, and met his eyes. "I don't think it can."

"Are you worried about Stefan?" he asked her quietly.

Elena paused, and then looked away. "Is it wrong that I'm not? Not really. Not anymore. I'm worried about _me_, Damon. All the time I was human, I worried about everyone else. But now - "

"You are not really thinking about any of them at all. Trust me, I've noticed."

"I feel like the Elena that had to take on the cares and worries for everyone she loved is gone. She died. And now all that's left is me. I no longer have to carry anyone."

"That's not such a bad thing, you know," Damon said, twirling a piece of her dark hair around his finger, and tightening his hold on her waist.

"It makes me feel like I'm turning into Katherine."

"Well, I can promise you that you are not. You would have to go a long way to plumb those depths of selfishness."

"I do understand her better, though."

Damon laughed, saying, "That's a scary thought."

"If I had had her life, and she had had mine . . . I don't know, Damon. I may have made the same choices she did." She turned to look at him again. "After all, we fell in love with the same brothers."

Elena reached up and touched Damon's cheek lightly with her hand. "No matter how crazy things get, I don't want you to forget this. When I'm screaming at you, when I'm hurling things at your head, when I go all psycho killer on the neighbors . . ." She gave a small laugh, and then added, "Don't forget that I can still be like this, too."

"I won't," promised Damon. He held her against him, and rested his head against hers. "Believe me, I won't."


	5. Chapter 5

AN: Thank you for the kind reviews! So happy that people are continuing to find this story. ;)

* * *

"Well, we know where Klaus is. Or rather, who Klaus is." Stefan leaned against the doorframe to Damon's room. Damon pushed himself up onto his elbows, dislodging Elena from his chest. "Come again?"

"What?" Elena asked, sleepily. She sat up, and ran a hand through her disheveled hair. "Stefan. You came home."

Stefan gave her a tight smile, and then looked at his brother. "Klaus is inside Tyler Lockwood."

"No, he's not," Damon replied. "Tyler is dead. Unless you are implying something really disturbing, and really kinky."

"He still might be dead, that part is unclear. But what we do know, is that Bonnie put Klaus in Tyler's body before Klaus was staked by Ric."

"And how do we know that?"

"Well, while you guys have been . . . here, I've been in Tennessee, where Klaus showed up at Caroline's motel yesterday, claiming to have been wandering the forests as a werewolf for the past couple of days. He said he had tracked her there using his werewolf senses."

Damon gave a sharp snort. "Nice cover. And then?"

"And Caroline was totally duped."

"Oh, God," Elena said, "Poor Caroline. Did she . . did they . . .?"

Stefan didn't say anything, he just raised an eyebrow.

"Yep, they did. Oh, Klaus you sly dog," said Damon. "How did she figure it out?"

"Caroline called Bonnie to tell her Tyler was alive . . . realizing what Klaus had done, Bonnie called me, and I went down and persuaded Caroline not to kill him. He's a lot more vulnerable now that he is in Tyler's body. She's furious."

"Ouch. I know what an angry Caroline is like. Like a blonde dervish."

"I brought her back home to her mother. The Sheriff seems to think that whatever you said to the Council has done the trick for now."

Elena turned to Damon, asking, "So you think Caroline is safe back in Mystic Falls?"

Damon raised an eyebrow in surprise. "Hey, look at you, being all human and concerned about your friends again." He turned to Stefan, telling him, "Bonnie and Abby sent over some herbs. Gotta say I am impressed with how fast they are working. And yes, to answer you both, the Council issue is well in hand. Carol, Liz and I have persuaded our upstanding town elders that modern vampirism is very much like having celiac disease, or being lactose intolerant. As long as we treat the patient with a special diet, all is well."

"Really, they bought that?" Stefan asked, with a smirk.

"In Caroline's case it's practically true, and she was the vampire we were concerned with protecting. It helps that everyone on the Council has known her since the day she was born, and that she's, well, Caroline. Nobody could really face the thought of staking her. Luckily, they don't know about the carny."

"Or the two deputies," Stefan added.

"Right."

"Sheriff Forbes has already gone to break the news to Carol that even if Tyler might be alive, he is definitely possessed. So now, we just have to figure out how to get Klaus out of Tyler's body, if that's even possible. "

"Correction. You can figure out how to do all of that." Damon waved a hand towards Stefan, and then lay back down on his pillow. "I don't really give a fuck about Tyler _or _Klaus."

"If Klaus stays in Tyler's body, he can be killed, brother. And that would be a problem for us."

"True." Damon stared up at the ceiling while he was thinking. Elena lay back down onto his bare chest, and he dropped a hand onto her hair. "Obviously, this all depends on whether or not Klaus' body got too crispy fried when Ric staked him. I know I saw flames, but it all happened pretty fast." He idly stroked Elena's hair as he was talking. "I suppose Bonnie would know, since she's the one who has been keeping all of this secret. And is completely responsible."

"And Elijah knows, since he went to get Klaus' body," Elena interjected from where she was laying, drawing lazy circles on Damon's bare chest with her finger.

"So, we could just bring everyone together and have one of our infamous Team Salvatore and Team Mikaelson summits. It'll be so nice to see Rebekah again. She and I need to have a chat, anyway, about her 'killing Elena' tendencies," Damon said.

Stefan cleared his throat. "Well, it's a suggestion. But I think we need to nail down the location of Ric's stake before we do anything at all."

Damon shifted Elena into an upright position, and then sat up. "You are so smart, brother. Elena, time to bring out that 'anywhere in the world' card so we can give Elijah a call."

* * *

Elena scrunched up her face as she drank down her herbal mixture, and perched on the edge of the arm of Damon's chair. "You have no idea how gross this is."

"Oh, honey, I can smell it. I imagine it tastes like the inside of Tyler Lockwood's gym bag."

"And do you spend a lot of time imagining what the inside of Tyler Lockwood's gym bag would taste like, Damon?" She smiled as she teased him. He looked up at her and grinned back.

"Everyone need a hobby, Elena."

Stefan crossed the room to sit on the couch. "Well, you two seem awfully chipper."

"Stefan, my brother. Come celebrate with us. It's been sixteen hours since Elena tried to eat anyone."

"I brought you both some breakfast." Stefan tossed them each a blood bag. He gave Elena a smile. "That's great to hear. You feeling okay?"

She smiled back at him. "I feel pretty good, actually." Elena set the blood bag on the table, and finished off her cup of herbs. "I'd feel even better if I didn't know that I'm going to have to drink this stuff twice a day for the next millenium or so."

"Hey, you heard Elijah, it's probably just for the next three, four hundred years, tops."

"Speaking of," Stefan interjected, "I just got off the phone with him, and he does not know where the stake is."

"He what now? That makes no sense. I left it right there."

"He was not too pleased at all to hear that we don't have it. He thought you brought it back with you, and that we were keeping it safe somewhere."

Damon sighed. "And it was shaping up to be such a good morning, too. Two words, brother: Cluster. Fuck."

"That's one word, Damon," Elena said, as she lightly whacked the side of his head.

"Shut up. What would you know? You don't even go to school anymore."

"If we all hadn't been so distracted with . . . events, we would have realized that none of us had the damn thing. And now, whoever does have it, has a three day head start," Stefan said.

"It could literally be anywhere. Oh, I know . . . Stefan, you start the search here in Mystic Falls, and Elena and I will go look someplace else."

"Someplace tropical," Elena suggested. "Oooh, Damon, can we go to Hawaii?"

"Why the hell not? That way if we find it, it'll save us the trip into Mordor to throw it into a volcano. So many handy volcanoes in Hawaii."

Elena giggled, and Stefan gave a snort. "Obviously, the two of you are going to be no help this morning."

"Aw, Stef, don't be such a killjoy. Yes, yes, there's a stake out there that could kill us all, yada and yada and yada. But the sun is shining and we are all still alive, brother. What were the odds of that a month ago?"

"Well, kind of 'alive'," Elena corrected him.

"Okay, 'alive adjacent'. Whatever, nobody is bringing us down today." Damon opened his blood bag and took a sip. "Not even the fact that you brought me AB neg. Are we seriously out of B pos already?"

"Supplies are low." Stefan indicated Elena with a nod. "Somebody has been pretty hungry lately."

Damon reached over and poked Elena in the side of her waist. "Greedy girl. And I guess with the Council on high alert for other vamps, it's going to be tricky to go steal some from the hospital today."

"I wish you could just get blood on Amazon Prime," Elena said with a sigh. "That way you wouldn't even have to pay shipping."

"I know, right?" said Damon. "It's almost like they want us to go out and kill people."

Elena opened her blood bag, and started to slurp it. She looked up, embarrassed. "Sorry. Still can't figure out how to do this delicately." She smiled over at Stefan. "Sweet of you to give me the last of the B pos, Stefan. I'm finally learning to taste the difference."

He met her eyes for a second, and then looked away. He cleared his throat. "You're welcome."

"Fine, " grumbled Damon. "Waste the good stuff on the one person in the house that doesn't even have a well developed palate yet."

"So what did Elijah suggest?" Elena asked Stefan, after she finished her breakfast and put the blood bag down.

"He said he had to make some calls, and then would get back to us. I got the impression he wanted to confer with Klaus." Stefan replied, and then he turned to Damon, "I was going to go go over to the high school today, and compel the administration to overlook Elena's attendance issues. Again. But if you think the Council is being too observant, maybe I should hold off."

"Probably a good idea. Since both of the vamps Ric outed were students there, and Ric was a teacher, the high school is the place where they are focusing their attention. Just stick with the cover story that she's recovering from Ric's attack on the Gilbert house. We'll come up with something better in a few days."

Elena went still. "My house is gone. I had forgotten."

Damon patted her on the arm, saying, "Not a big deal. Technically, this is your house, too. It's always useful to have a spare one just in case you get a hankering to tear down the first." He looked at Stefan, and said, "So, dearest brother, you are on Bonnie duty instead. Thank her kindly for Elena's magic herbs, and see what she thinks about getting Klaus out of Tyler, and back into his far more durable body before Caroline gets the urge to tear his head off. I'd do it myself, but I don't think either of the Bennett ladies are fans of mine right now."

"And what are you guys going to do?" Stefan asked, raising his eyebrows.

"Oh, I think we're just going to hang out here and do some working out, if you know what I mean." Smirking, he looked up at Elena. "Elena, my friend, how do you feel about yoga this morning? I've got this Jillian Michaels DVD that'll rock your world. Do wonders for keeping that Hulk side of yours in check."

Elena sighed. "Fine. But I'm not letting you talk me into using you as a yoga wall, Damon."

* * *

Stefan returned a couple of hours later.

"Klaus's body was definitely damaged when he was staked. Elijah is handling it, and Bonnie isn't involved. Oh, and those herbs are like antidepressants for vampires," Stefan informed them. "They'll keep Elena from getting too sad, or too stressed."

"Wow. Vampire Prozac. What a remarkably good idea. It shows that Abby was paying attention while she was here. Remind me to send the Bennetts a fruit basket," Damon said, while re-stacking the pile of books by his bed. Elena had gotten them out of order, and it had been bugging him all morning.

"Now if only they could do something about the taste," Elena remarked lightly, as she walked out of Damon's shower toweling her hair.

Both brothers went very quiet and very still.

"What?" she asked them.

"Um . . . Elena, I know that I like to follow a no robe policy around the house, but I think that you just gave Stefan a coronary. Which is hard to do since he's already dead." Damon walked past her into the bathroom, and then tossed her another towel.

Elena rolled her eyes, but wrapped the towel around herself anyway. "Whatever. Like there's anything here either of you haven't seen before."

Stefan shot his brother a dark look, and Damon held up a hand. "Whoah. I'm assuming you mean because you and Katherine are both doppelgangers."

"Of course I did," she said with a lopsided grin. "What else could I mean?" she added, before leaving to go back to the guest room.

"Yeah, I am loving these vampire antidepressants. It's going to be the biggest goddamn fruit basket Abby and Bonnie have ever seen," Damon said, with a laugh. At Stefan's glower, he added, "What? You preferred it when she was all mopey and breaking things? Trust me, this is so much more fun."

"Nothing about this is fun, Damon," Stefan replied, turning to leave with a furrowed brow.

"Speak for yourself, Stef. If you weren't so hung up on monogamy, this could be a twenty four seven party, brother," Damon called after his retreating back.

Damon went to the guest room, and threw himself onto the bed to watch Elena get dressed. "Your boyfriend is getting jealous," he said, in a singsong voice.

"Oh, is he? I hadn't noticed," Elena replied, pulling her jeans on and zipping them up.

"You might want to dial back the femme fatale thing you've got going on. I might be having a good time, but he is not."

"Then he can tell me that face to face," Elena said. She shrugged a shirt on. "If he can bring himself to actually look me in the eyes and have a conversation."

Damon raised an eyebrow. "Well, okay, then."

"Do you know why I keep disappearing upstairs all the time?" Elena asked him.

"Because you need your alone time to sort through all your girly feelings?"

"No, idiot. Because that's when the two of you decide to have conversations about me downstairs, just as though I don't have vampire super hearing."

Damon winced. "Yeah. We're not too bright, are we?"

Elena rolled her eyes at him. "Not really, no. So I'm fully aware of what Stefan is going through right now, just as I'm fully aware that he is downstairs listening to us," she raised her voice, slightly, "and that's a giant hint for him to come and talk to me himself, by the way."

Stefan appeared in the doorway. "Okay, fine," he said quietly. He looked at his brother and raised an eyebrow. "Do you mind?"

Damon shrugged. "Me? I don't mind anything at all. Was just feeling the need for a walk anyway."

Damon left the guest room saying, "Remember, Stefan, that's dear old mum's bedroom furniture. The four poster bed in particular is a fine example of Thomas Day's best work, circa 1847. Take note of the distinctive fluting and millwork on the headboard. So if you are going to get your girlfriend all upset, for the love of all that's holy, please do it in a different room."


	6. Chapter 6

AN: Timeline note! You know how on the show, the finale should have taken place in like, the Mystic Falls version of January or February of 2011? At least, I think so . . the show's timeline is hella confusing to me sometimes. Well, anyway, I need you to assume two things - that the events of the TVD finale actually happened in earlyish spring of 2012, and yet somehow, everyone has already seen the finale of The Voice. Thanks!

* * *

Damon wasn't sure just how long Stefan and Elena were going to be discussing whatever they were going to be discussing, so instead of a walk, he went for a drive. After an aimless and boring hour of driving down back roads, he found himself at Sheriff Forbes's house. He had made certain promises to Councilman Wilberforce Fell 'to oversee Little Caroline Forbes' condition personally', so he figured he'd make the old bastard happy with an official visit. Sure enough, he saw the blinds on Wilber Fell's house across the street twitch when he walked up to Caroline's door.

"Knock knock," Damon called out, knowing Caroline had already heard him drive up.

"Damon!" Caroline nearly tackled him in her enthusiasm.

"Whoah," Damon replied, steadying himself. "You are never this happy to see me."

"Well, I am when you are like, literally the only person I have seen all day since Stefan dropped me off." Caroline led him into the house, and then into the living room. "Mom says I have to be quarantined here until the council folks feel okay about me going back to school with their precious children. I mean, if I haven't eaten Melody Fell by now, I'm not likely to start munching on her during French class all of a sudden. So bored, Damon. I am so so bored."

"I expected angry, not bored. What happened to angry?"  
"Oh, I am still angry. I don't think I will ever not be angry." Caroline's face scrunched up with rage, and then relaxed. "I'm just sublimating my anger with a The Voice marathon."

"Tony Lucca was robbed," Damon interjected.

"I know! So robbed. No excuse for that. None." Caroline sat on the couch and tucked her bare feet underneath her. "So . . ."

"So," Damon echoed back, sitting beside her. "You probably want to ask about our girl."

"Yeah . . . Stefan didn't have much to say. I mean, I know about Elijah's blood, and how Elena tore down her house and killed her brother temporarily, and I know she like, freaked out all over Matt, but that's all I've heard."

"Well, she's doing as well as can be considered. Abby and Bonnie gave her some herbs that are quite possibly miracle drugs, and that's made a big difference. She has finally stopped crying all the time."

"Oh, poor Elena! Stefan didn't think it was a good idea for me to go over there until I got the all clear from my mom, but I wish I had been with her." Caroline suddenly smacked him in the arm.

"Ow! What?"

"You! Your brother is so sad! What are you doing to make him so sad, Damon? You had better be leaving Elena alone."

"I have absolutely no idea what you are talking about," Damon said indignantly, "I've done nothing. Stefan is the one that fed on her brother, and then disappeared to Tennessee."

"That's not what I mean! Matt told me that she finally made a decision between the two of you, so I wasn't expecting Stefan to be all Mr. Broody Face the entire road trip. He wasn't acting like he'd won at all."

"Well, you know what they say, the course of true love never did run smooth. Stefan is having to 'adjust' to a non-human Elena," Damon replied, using quote fingers.

"Oh," Caroline said, suddenly subdued. "I hadn't thought of that. I can see where they might have problems here at the beginning. But they have forever now, right?"

"Yep. Forever. They certainly do," Damon said. "Forever and ever and ever ad infinitum. Yippee skippy."

"You are such a jerk. They'll be fine if you just don't mess with them. Hands off Elena, Damon." Caroline smacked him again.

"Ow! Will you stop? I have been keeping my hands off. Well, mostly. As far as Stefan knows, anyway."

She glared at him, and tried to smack him again, but he grabbed her hand. "Enough, little girl. Don't take it out on me. I'm not Klaus."

Caroline drew back, and took a shuddering breath. "That bastard. I haven't been so angry with a guy since I first realized how you had screwed me over with your vampire mind tricks. I'm over the worst over it, but I swear to God I almost took his heart right out of his chest last night."

"Good thing you realize that would be suicide. Literally suicide. You do realize that, right, Caroline?'

"Yes, I know. I'm not going to kill him, Damon." She rolled her eyes. "I mean, duh, he's in Tyler's body. And Bonnie says Tyler is still in there, too. It's the same deal as when Klaus took over Alaric, apparently. Tyler is going to be so pissed."

"And she's planning on letting Tyler return to his old self when, exactly?'

"Not until the stake is found, I guess. That's what Klaus-inside-Tyler says. Elijah is going to keep Klaus's body well hidden until they know the stake can't be used against him."

"But if everyone knows that Klaus is inside Tyler, then presumably whoever has the stake knows that, too. So he's actually less safe going by this plan."

"I know! That's what I said to Bonnie. I said that exact thing. But Elijah also has to find a witch who knows how to repair the damage done to Klaus' body when it caught on fire. Bonnie doesn't know how. Or doesn't want to." Caroline laughed. "Krispy Klaus! I'll bet he still looks pretty funny."

"You are actually taking this better than I thought," Damon admitted. "Color me impressed, Caroline."

"I thought Tyler was dead, Damon. For hours and hours, I thought he was dead. So maybe I'm just so giddy now that I know he's still alive, that nothing else could ever seem serious or sad again, you know?"

"Yeah, I think I do know." Damon smiled at her. "Let's not forget that I just went through that myself."

"So true! So let's break out the blood that I have in the fridge and celebrate just knowing that the ones we love are going to be okay. Eventually," she added, hopping up and going to the kitchen. "Not that I am encouraging you to be in love with Elena, because I am so not."

As he followed her in there, the front door opened and Sheriff Forbes came inside."Hi, Damon."

"Hey, Liz. Just about to have a snack."

"I can see that." Liz took her gun belt off and hung it on a hook on the wall. She followed them into the kitchen and sat down at the table. She rubbed her eyes. "What a day."

"Anything I can do to help?" Damon asked, as he took a blood bag from Caroline.

"Oh, you have been just about the only helpful person today, Damon. I can't thank you enough for how convincing you were at the Council meeting yesterday."

"Does that mean I can finally leave the house?" asked Caroline.

"Maybe tomorrow? I'm not sure. The biggest pain in my butt is Wilberforce Fell, who called me seven times today with questions. He wants to know how you can walk in the sun, or how you can possibly eat garlic bread, which he swears he saw you do a couple of weeks ago at the Grill, and on and on. I am apparently the town's encyclopedia on vampires, now. And you know how he worries about his granddaughter."

"Ugh. Melody Fell. She's the worst," Caroline said to Damon. "Such a drama queen. I'd like to nibble on her after P.E. one day just to give her something to legitimately freak out about."

"Don't even," Liz said, "don't even say it aloud. I wouldn't put it past Wilber to be listening at our door right now."

"Well, let's hope not. And I'll report back to Wilber tomorrow and let him know I stopped by to check in on Caroline. I'll even tell him I interrogated her, and made her confess all her terrible vampire sins to me. Then he can bug me instead of you."

"I appreciate that, Damon." Liz gave him a smile. "Oh, by the way, we found another body. A twelve year old girl in the parking lot of the Safeway."

"Oh, yeah? One of Ric's random victims, I guess," Damon said, nonchalantly, as he finished off his blood.

"I suppose so." Liz frowned. "This one seemed pretty fresh, though. When did Alaric Saltzman die? The same night he tore down the Gilbert house?"

"Oh, you know, sometime on Monday, I think? I didn't look at the time. Must have been that same night," Damon answered with a shrug. Caroline shot him a dark look, and furrowed her brow, but he ignored her. "Everything was just happening at once. Things were pretty crazy."

"Well, I suppose it was either Alaric or perhaps one of the Mikaelsons."

"Very true. They are highly unstable, you know."

"Good point. I'd be very happy to know that they were all packing up to leave Mystic Falls."

"Well . . . as much as it would make me happy to make you happy . . . "

Liz sighed heavily. "No, I understand. I'll have this one chalked up to a random animal attack for the public, and tell the Council it was Alaric. I listed what he did to the Gilbert house as a freak tornado. Not sure if anyone believed me, but it was the best I could do."

"Yes, I think that's the best plan." Damon stood up, and chucked Caroline under the chin. "Later, blondie. You can come and see Elena after school tomorrow, maybe. We can tell the Council that you have to come over to my house for un-vampiring lessons, or something."

"Oh, that's right," Liz exclaimed. "I'm sorry, Damon, I didn't even ask. How is Elena doing? With . . . with everything?"

"She's just fine. She's going to live with us for awhile. Or forever," he amended, remembering that Elena didn't have a house anymore. "Not sure, yet. But she's learning how to be a good little vampire, and soon enough she'll be back at school with Caroline. Nobody the wiser."

"Oh, that's good. I know you and Stefan will keep her on an even keel."

"Yep, that is exactly what we are doing." Damon smiled again. "Good night, Liz. Caroline." On his way out the door, he snagged an extra bag of B positive blood from the kitchen table. "Elena's favorite, if you don't mind. Thanks."

* * *

Damon stayed out late, hoping that Stefan and Elena would have already gone to sleep, but Elena was mixing up her herbs in the kitchen when he returned home.

"Where's Stefan?"

"He's around," she answered, listlessly.

"Yeah? You two copacetic? All's right with the world?"

"Sure." She picked up her mug and then left the kitchen.

Damon put his pilfered blood bag in the fridge to give to her in the morning. This was apparently not the time. He could hear that Stefan was out on the patio, and the clink of ice against glass suggested that he might like a drinking buddy. Damon made his own drink and then joined his brother sitting on the balustrade.

"Beautiful evening, huh?"

Stefan smiled at him, but said nothing. He took a drink from his glass of bourbon.

"So . . ."

"So . . . what, Damon?"

Damon shrugged, saying, "So, nothing I guess. Thought maybe there would be something you wanted to share with me."

"Elena and I are going to go up to the lakehouse for a couple of days. Maybe a week."

Damon raised an eyebrow, but made no comment.

"We'll need your help. And Jeremy's," Stefan said, rolling the ice around in his glass.

"Of course. Jeremy to invite Elena in, and me to . . . stand around and cheer you guys on?"

"To help keep Elena away from Jeremy."

"Right." Damon cleared his throat. "Sounds like a necessary evil. You going up tonight, or will you wait until morning?"

"Elena wants to wait until morning."

"Have you already talked to Jeremy?"

"Just got off the phone with him. When she tore the house down, Elena threw part of the roof onto his car and smashed it pretty bad. So he'll need you to give him a ride there. He's been staying at Ric's old place the past few days, so I told him you would pick him up there at eight."

"And then after younger Gilbert and I perform our assigned duties, we'll just skeedaddle along, I suppose." Damon drained his glass, and put it down carefully.

"Problem, brother?" Stefan asked.

"No, no problem here." Damon stood up, and walked back into the house.

He found Elena in his room once again, sifting through his DVDs and Blu Rays. She held up a copy of The Breakfast Club. "I have never seen this."

"You are lying to me. That is crazy talk."

"No, seriously. It's kind of before my time."

"Oh, yes. I keep forgetting what an absolute infant you are."

"Can we watch it in bed tonight before we go to sleep?"

Damon looked at her. His Elena, with her shiny dark hair high on her head in a ponytail, her eyes wide and dark and laughing. He knew he should say something about Stefan. About how she should probably sleep in Stefan's room tonight. About how hard Stefan was trying. About how Stefan wanted to make everything right between the two of them again. But he didn't. "Sure, Elena. Whatever you want."

"I'm finding it just a little hard to believe that you own the entire collection of John Hughes movies, Damon."

"Would you believe they were left here by an old girlfriend?"

"Oh, right. And who would you know that must have been a teenage girl in the 80s?"

"Well . . ."

"Oh, yeah," she said, suddenly serious. "I forgot about Andie. These were hers?"

He nodded, and then said with a smile, "Andie was a sweet kid."

"I know. I liked her. I mean, I know what you had wasn't real . . ."

"It was real sometimes," Damon replied. "It was real enough for me at the time."

"Stefan never mentions her, or what happened that night at all."

"I can't say that I talk about Lexi very often, either."

"You have been cruel to each other," Elena said, her eyes on his face. "I don't think you should be cruel to each other any more."

Damon sighed, suddenly very weary. "Yeah, well . . . I don't know that we can help it."


	7. Chapter 7

They ended up watching three John Hughes movies that night. Damon would not have even been able to name which ones they were, he was too aware of how warm and right Elena felt sitting between his legs, and leaning against his chest. She fell asleep around two AM, but was awake again at three o'clock, and very chatty.

"What famous people have you known? Did you ever meet Marilyn Monroe?"

"Marilyn? No. Would have liked to. I did run into Ava Gardner at a club on the East Side of New York."

"When?"

"I think it was the late forties? Or the early fifties. After the war. The big one," he amended. "Although not the one that was a big one for me. Ava was a real peach. She could mix up one hell of a gimlet."

"Who else?"

Even in the near dark, he could see how wide her eyes were, how soft the curve of her cheek. He knew that this moment, holding Elena in his arms in the dark, so warm and sweet, was one he would replay a hundred times. No, a thousand thousand times during his own eternity.

"Well, let's see . . . Charlie Chaplin at a pool party in Santa Monica. Total jerk. Knobby knees, too. Oh, and I met Piet Mondrian in the early 20s in Paris. Not an interesting person at all. He bored me so much, I fed on him to make him shut up. Not that he would remember that. I fed on Twiggy once in the 60s. But I didn't realize she was famous until later, so I don't know if that even counts."

"I'm going to count it," she said, and snuggled just a little closer.

"Are you keeping a mental list?"

"Stefan told me that he went on a double date with Hugh Hefner in the 70s."

"Total lie. I remember Stefan in the 70s, and he was far too focused on majoring in The Dull and The Boring at Harvard. Too much of a dweeb to be swinging with Hef." He shifted his weight slightly, to wrap his arm a little tighter around her. "Not to ruin the moment or anything, but do you happen to know where Stefan went? He's been gone for hours."

Elena yawned. "I think he said he was going to try the blood bank in Westlake tonight. That's a fairly long drive."

"Oh, that's a good one. No night guard at all, just a super easy to bypass security alarm," he paused, and then continued, "Good idea to stock up before you guys go up to the lake tomorrow."

"I suppose so," She turned her face up to his. "Did you ever meet any of the Beatles? I wonder what John Lennon would have tasted like."

"No, but I imagine he would be fairly hash-hish-y." Damon made a face, "Never did care much for the taste of hippies. So earthy. In general, you should stay away from all druggies if you can. Really gross. However, LSD makes the blood taste a little like bananas. I have no idea why."

"I'll keep that in mind." Elena yawned again, and stretched against him. He went still, and held his breath as she looked up at him with sleepy eyes, "Thank you, Damon," she murmured, burying her head against his chest, and closing her eyes.

"Anytime, Elena," Damon answered, holding her close the rest of the night.

* * *

When Damon woke up in the morning, he slipped from his bed and showered in the guest bathroom down the hall so he wouldn't disturb his bedfellow. Elena was still peacefully curled up, but he couldn't hear Stefan in the house at all. He went downstairs and saw Stefan emerging from the cellar.

"There you are, brother. Any luck in Westlake?"

Stefan ran a hand through his hair, clearly frustrated, "Not there, no. Someone had been there before me, and they wiped the place out. Not exactly discreet."

"Damnit, Rebekah," Damon sighed. "She's the least subtle blood bank robber that I have ever had the misfortune of knowing. I guess that means she and Klaus-inside-Tyler really are staying in the area for awhile."

"Most likely. I had to go all the way to Ridgefield."

"Yikes, you went to Kentucky? I hope that sufficed."

"Thankfully, yes. We're decently stocked."

Damon yawned. "Much obliged, Stefan. I'm starting to think Elena was onto something with her idea of ordering our blood off Amazon."

Stefan gave him a long look. "Tired, Damon?"

"A little. You know how Elena gets when she's in the mood for a slumber party. A John Hughes marathon, and late night hair braiding." He yawned again.

"Sorry, if she's being a nuisance," Stefan smiled tightly. "Luckily, we'll be out of here soon and you'll have more time to yourself."

"Oh, yes. Because if there's one thing I love, it's having time to myself. I have definitely not had enough alone time over the past century and a half," Damon said. "No, it'll be swell. I have a to do list a mile long, and this will give me a chance to bring in glaziers and masons and the like to finish repairing the living room without Elena eating them or smashing them."

They could both hear her moving around upstairs. Stefan turned, and headed for the front door, saying, "I have extra in the car that I promised to bring over to Caroline, so . . ."

"No worries," Damon replied. "I'll go and help Elena pack."

Elena was pacing in Stefan's room when he went upstairs.

"I think you should bring both the white nightie, and the black bra and panties set. You know the one where the panties go like _this_, and they have the little peach bow on the front. Definitely Stefan's favorites."

"Ha ha," Elena said. "You are hilarious."

"I know," replied Damon, "and finally my comedic genius is being recognized."

Elena sat down on Stefan's bed, and twisted her hands in agitation. Damon watched her carefully. Her chest began to heave.

"Okay, now. What's made you suddenly uptight?"

"Nothing," Elena said. "Just . . . I haven't had my herbs yet. I should go do that. I really need to take my herbs. Like now."

"Okay, no problem. We do have vampire speed, you know."

Damon went quickly to the kitchen, and started mix up her herbal Prozac. Elena followed him, and started to pace between the table and the door.

"I don't know, Damon," she said, quietly.

"You don't know what?" Damon replied, turning to hand her the cup. "Here you go."

"I don't know," she said again, her voice rising on the last word. Her hand shot out and dashed the cup to the ground. "I don't know."

She reached out and grabbed the counter top tightly, struggling to breathe. The countertop began to crumble beneath her hands, and suddenly, she was a blur of motion.

Damon stepped back, as Elena began to scream and then to move, and the bank of cabinets over his head came crashing down on him. He stood up and shoved the broken cabinet frames off of himself, and tried to grab ahold of her when she went for the cabinets on the other side of the room. She twisted away, and threw him against the refrigerator.

Stefan appeared in the doorway. He helped Damon up, and they both took ahold of Elena and forced her to the ground. She writhed in their grasp, screaming inarticulately for a few seconds, before going silent and still.

Damon and Stefan looked at each other, before letting go of her simultaneously and stepping back carefully. Elena sat up, covering her face in her hands. The familiar sound of her sobs filling the small kitchen.

"What did you say to her?" Stefan said, with a note of accusation on his voice, as he looked at Damon.

"Well, Stefan, I believe my exact words were 'here you go', as I tried to give her the herbal good stuff. Clearly, I'm some kind of monster."

Elena removed her hands from her face and looked up at them, tears staining her cheeks. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

"Hey, it's okay," Damon assured her, as he crouched down beside her. "We all hated this kitchen, right, Stefan? Zach's mom redecorated it in the 80s, and that woman had absolutely no taste. You just did us a huge favor."

Stefan came down onto the floor also, and took Elena into his arms. "It's going to be all right," he said, softly. "I'm taking you away from here, where everything is going to be all right."

Damon stood up and turned away. He sorted through the wreckage of the kitchen until he found what was left of the jar of herbs. He took them into the downstairs bathroom and mixed up a new mug of them for her.

He could still hear Stefan murmuring to Elena about how he was going to take care of her, and how they were going to spend the whole week away, just the two of them. Damon looked at himself in the mirror over the sink. "Stupid fool," he thought, and then went to bring Elena her medicine.

* * *

Jeremy was standing outside of Ric's old building when Damon pulled up in the Camaro.

"Hop in, little boy," Damon called out to him.

"It's too cold to have the top down," Jeremy grumbled, as he got into the car.

"I'm a vampire. It's never too cold for me to do anything."

"Well, some of us aren't vampires."

"Yet," Damon said, with a crooked grin. Jeremy shot him a dark look, but did not respond.

They drove most of the way up to the lake in silence, finally broken when Jeremy asked, "Are we sure this is a good idea?"

"It's what Stefan wants to do. Elena could have said no," Damon responded, his eyes on the winding road through the forest.

"No, I mean . . . is it a good idea for me to be around Elena?"

Damon glanced over at him. "You scared, Gilbert? Afraid your ring will stop working the next time she rips your throat out?"

"No. . . I just," Jeremy looked away. "Okay, yeah. I don't like being scared of my own sister, but yeah, I am. She's _really _scary."

"Understandable," Damon said. "Now, see, my brother and I have beaten each other bloody, snapped each other's necks, staked each other about a thousand times- and of course, there was that time in the 50s when I tried to gouge his eyes out - so maybe I can sympathize."

Jeremy grimaced, and Damon reached over and patted him on the head. "Sibling relationships," Damon said. "Very complicated."

When they reached the house, Stefan and a blank faced Elena were standing on the front stoop.

"Hmmm." Damon wasn't sure this was the best arrangement. He called out from the car, "Stefan? Do you think maybe you two could move, oh, about twenty feet away from the door?"

Stefan took Elena's hand and they vamp sped into the trees across from the front door. Elena never looked at Jeremy or Damon, but kept her eyes on the ground. Damon angled himself between Jeremy and Elena, as Jeremy walked up the stoop and unlocked the door.

Hesitantly, Jeremy stepped inside, and then looked at Damon.

"What should I say?"

"Just say she is invited, " Damon said, impatiently. "You aren't making a commencement address."

Jeremey cleared his throat, and said, "I invite you into this house, Elena Gilbert."

"So formal," Damon remarked. "But it'll do. Now is when you leave," he added.

Jeremy walked back down the steps, and Damon escorted him to the Camaro.

Elena never once looked up as they drove away.

* * *

After dropping Jeremy off at school, Damon decided that he really did need to get to work on his to do list. To which, he mentally added hiring a contractor to remodel the kitchen. A compellable contractor. He did not need word getting out around town that he had his own personal wrecking ball living in his house. He also wondered if Bonnie would advise adding an extra dose of the vampire Prozac to Elena's daily regimen. Clearly, their effect was somewhat fleeting. And he still needed to check in with Wilberforce Fell and reassure him that Caroline wasn't hungering after Granddaughter Fell, and he also needed to swing by Klaus's house to find out what Rebekah and Klaus knew about the missing silver stake, _and_ he needed to make sure Rebekah understood that her midnight blood bank raids had to be scaled back until the local banks had a chance to recover their supply.

However, he did none of those things right away. Instead, he drove to where the Gilbert house once stood. It wasn't entirely true that nothing was left standing. Most of the porch was gone, and all of the front of the house was caved in. The back kitchen wall was still standing, though, and the staircase still stood tall into emptiness. Damon sifted through the rubble, careful not to display any feats of vampire strength in case the neighbors were watching. Not likely in this neighborhood, though. He unearthed a couple of things that he felt were worth saving, but he did not find Elena's diary. Assuming that no one else had swiped it, that probably meant she had it with her. Good, he thought, definitely don't want that coming into the wrong hands. He dusted off his hands and drove away, adding the task of finding a demolition crew to his ever growing list.

The list that completely and totally slipped right from his mind when he got home and found Elena lounging on the couch in the living room.

"What are you doing back so early?" he asked, tossing the teddy bear he had found in the rubble onto her lap. "Look what I brought - " he stopped short. "Katherine."

"Oh, how cute," Katherine said, holding the bear up and dusting it off. "A little worse for wear, but it was a very sweet thought, Damon."

"Oh for fuck's sake," Damon said, as he sank into a chair. "This is all I need."


	8. Chapter 8

"Is this the right time for me to say, 'hi, honey, I'm home'?"

"No, it's the right time for me to say 'fuck off you fucking bitch'."

"Damon, Damon . . . you used to be such a gentleman."

"Yeah, well . . . I used to be a lot of things before this pyscho vampire woman came into my life, and ruined it," Damon sighed. "What do you want, Katherine?"

"You don't seem to understand, Damon. I've come _home_."

"No, _you_ don't seem to understand. A, this is not your home, not even a little bit, and B, if you are still here when Elena returns, there won't _be_ a home to come back to anymore."

"Oh, yes. I've heard about how inconvenient she has become," Katherine said, as she tossed Elena's teddy back to Damon. "Maybe all she was missing was that dear, sweet teddy bear."

"You open your mouth to talk, but all I hear is 'I'm a raging, selfish hyena here to fuck you over.' I don't how you are going to fuck me over, I only know that you will."

"After all those times I helped you guys protect your precious Elena, I thought we were past this kind of hostility. Have you already forgotten our teamwork of only a few months ago?"

"Forgive me if I am not doing the dance of joy right now, dearest Katherine. It's been an extremely long week. I can barely remember my own name."

Oh, my poor Damon. I really don't know why you should shoulder all of this burden yourself. After all, she's not _your_ girlfriend," Katherine laughed, lightly. "And never will be from what I have been told."

Damon felt a tiredness like he had never known settle upon him. "And who have you been chatting with, since you so obviously want me to ask?'

Katherine paused, and then smiled. "I have struck a deal with Klaus, Damon, and he was pleased to tell me how your love is making a fool of you."

"Klaus," Damon said. "Of course. Your most mortal enemy is now your gossip buddy. That makes sense."

"Right now, he realizes that he is at his most vulnerable, and he is trying to turn his enemies into his allies. It's a permanent truce, meaning that I never have to be on the run again."

"Until you piss off the next stronger-than-you and possibly-unkillable vampire? I give you a month." At her expression of mock offense, Damon amended, "Okay, fine. I'm happy for you, Katherine. It is all that you ever wanted."

"Well, not exactly all that I ever wanted." She gave him an arch look, while stretching out on the couch. "You know why I'm really here."

"Of course," Damon sighed. "You came back for Stefan. Always Stefan. Well, sorry, but you are going to have to get through Elena first, and she is not exactly a pushover these days."

"I don't think that's going to be a problem in the long run, Damon. We both know that Elena's only real allure for Stefan was that she was a human version of me. And now that's very much moot. It will only take him a little while to figure that out, and I can be a very patient woman." She rose and indicated a couple of suitcases sitting beside the couch. "Do be a dear and run those up to Stefan's room, would you?"

Damon laughed. "Oh yeah, this is going to be fun."

* * *

He did take her bags upstairs, but he put them into the guestroom the farthest possible from both Stefan's room, and the room Elena was keeping her things in. Having Katherine around would only create difficulties, and he knew that. But there was no point in fighting against the rising tide. Where Katherine was concerned, you could only hang on tight and hope not to be swept too far into her maelstrom. And honestly, he felt that she was Stefan's problem to deal with, and not his. So Stefan could handle kicking her out. Or they could just let Elena do it for them with extreme prejudice.

Pointedly ignoring his house guest, he completed most of his tasks, even convincing a contractor to come over that very day to survey the damage to the kitchen and give him an estimate. Damon compelled him to believe that a freak tornado had localized itself entirely within the Salvatore kitchen. Oh, freak tornados. A lot of those going around, apparently. He was too tired to think of a better cover story. He hadn't been lying when he told Elena that he had always hated the kitchen, though, and he took some pleasure in describing to the contractor how he wanted the new kitchen design laid out. He hoped Elena would be pleased that he had chosen to recreate the one from the Gilbert house. Of course, if she wasn't pleased, she could just tear it down again, he supposed.

Damon couldn't decide which Mikaelson he least wanted to deal with. On the one hand, Klaus was a dick no matter what body he was possessing, and on the other hand, Rebekah killed Elena. He wasn't quite ready to deal with the person who killed Elena, so he called Klaus.

"Damon, how lovely."

"Yeah, this is even funnier than I thought it would be. You sound hysterical. Really, inside Tyler Lockwood, huh?"

"Only temporarily. Interesting that you felt brave enough to call me, Damon, given the circumstances of our last meeting."

"Oh, I'm feeling super brave, knowing just how easily I could rip your heart out if I wanted to. Very satisfying. Of course, I would also have to be feeling suicidal, so there is that complication."

"Yes," Klaus responded with Tyler's voice. "Definitely a complication. Did you call for a reason, Damon, or just to poke fun?"

"I called for two reasons, actually. Well, three if you count the poking fun reason. First, you have got to make your sister learn the rules of blood bank robbing. Namely, don't wipe the place totally clean. She probably made the evening news with that maneuver, and it's kind of a dead giveaway that vampires are in the area."

"Noted."

"And also, I wanted to know what I, as your friendly neighbor, can do to help with this whole 'find the silver stake' endeavor."

"You?" Klaus laughed. "I don't think so, neighbor. Have you forgotten the Salvatore track record, Damon? And you, I believe, are the one who lost the stake in the first place. I think we will handle this amongst ourselves, if you don't mind."

"Hey, okay. I hear you. Just thought I would offer. And one last thing . . . now that you are so chummy, do you think you could take Katherine off my hands? She's decided to stay here, and I think it could get dicey when Elena finds out. You have plenty of room at your house."

"Worth a try," Damon murmured to himself as he hung up, the sound of Klaus-as-Tyler's laughter still ringing in his ear.

* * *

At six o'clock, a bored Katherine announced that she was going out.

"Not around here, you aren't. The townsfolk think Elena is laid up under a doctor's care after a tornado knocked her house down with herself inside of it. So come up with a new plan."

"Oh, please," Katherine replied. "Like there is anything in this town worth buying, eating or stealing. Going up to Richmond, be back later. Ta."

As soon as she left, Damon called Stefan to check in.

"Hello, brother."

"Damon."

"Everything all sweetness and light up there? Enjoying the lake breezes and birds twittering and what not?"

"Everything is fine, Damon. We were just about to have dinner."

"Oh, well, don't let me interrupt. Just let Elena know that there's a _Toddlers And Tiaras _marathon on tonight. I'll DVR it for her if she wants."

There was silence, and then, "Do what you need to do, Damon."

"Fine. I will."

"Okay."

"All right." Damon cleared his throat. "If you guys need anything-"

"We won't."

"Of course not. Later, then."

Stefan hung up without answering.

Damon heard nothing from either of the two lovebirds at the lake house the rest of that day. The first he knew that there might be a problem came when he received a phone call from Sheriff Forbes at two o'clock in the morning.

There was a vampire rampaging through town. Four bodies had been found, and reports had come in that someone, or _some thing_ was terrorizing Mystic Falls Hospital. The Sheriff was holding off from sending her deputies because she was hoping that Damon could contain the problem first.

Damon tried calling Stefan repeatedly as he rapidly got dressed and got into his car. No answer. Katherine offered to come and help, but he just laughed in her face as he left. He doubted that Katherine would have a calming effect on an enraged Elena. He called Bonnie as he drove over to the hospital.

"I think Elena went off her meds," Damon said abruptly, as soon as Bonnie answered the phone.

"What? Damon?"

"Yes, Bonnie. Wake up. Like I said, Elena is off her meds. Sheriff Forbes says there's a vampire on a killing spree. I don't have any of that magical vampire Prozac with me, so I need you to bring some over to the hospital. We have to get it into her fast."

There was a pause. "Damon," Bonnie said, "there's no such thing as vampire Prozac."

"What? What do you mean? That stuff you sent over with Matt has been working like a charm, Bonnie. One minute, Elena is hulking out, and the next she's sweet as a kitten. They fucking _work_."

"Damon, you don't understand. Those herbs were just a placebo. Abby thought Elena might need some kind of psychological crutch to get through these first few weeks. That jar was just parsley and grass and some other stuff."

"You have _got _to be kidding me."

"I'm serious, Damon. If Elena has been able to relax and calm down, it's not the herbs that have been helping her."

Damon pounded the steering wheel in frustration. "Then I've got _nothing_, Bonnie. Nothing that can stop her."

"I'll come, Damon. Maybe I can still help."

He pulled into the parking lot of the hospital, and stopped. There was a gaping hole where there used to be a revolving door into the lobby. He could see right inside the building. Where once a reception desk stood, there was now nothing but electrical wires ripped open and shooting sparks.

"You might want to hurry," Damon said into the phone, and then hung up.

"This is not good," Damon murmured to himself, as he walked through the debris of a darkened hospital hallway. Most of the hospital was still standing, but there were several empty places where there should have been walls. "Horror movies often start out like this."

He could hear the whimpers of several injured people coming from the floor above him, so he made his way carefully upstairs in the dark.

"Elena?" he called out softly. He didn't know how far she was gone, and he did not want to move too fast and spook her all the way.

He almost didn't see Stefan, standing in the doorway near the top of the stairs. Stefan turned and looked at him, and Damon could have wept at the bleakness in his brother's face. There was blood on Stefan's mouth and chin, and tears in his eyes, as he simply said, "The maternity ward."

Damon looked inside and winced. A very bloody Elena was crouched in the farthest corner, silently rocking herself back and forth. But between her and the door where the brothers stood were several broken bodies, some much smaller than they should be. Tiny bodies. Damon suddenly understood why his brother looked so lost. He felt pretty lost himself.

Elena put up no struggle when Damon and Stefan brought her out of the hospital. She made no noises at all, no wailing, no sobbing, and no tears. She stared at her bloody hands and never looked up. On the way back, Damon called Bonnie again and told her not to come. He hung up on her when she tried to question him.

Once they were home, Damon cleaned Elena up the best he could given how uncooperative she was being. He carried her to his room, and lay her down gently on the bed. She didn't even seem to realize that he was in the room with her when he pulled the covers over her, and smoothed her hair away from her forehead. Elena stared blankly at the wall for a second, and then shut her eyes. Stefan made no comment, he only watched from the doorway. Katherine, wisely, had made herself scarce. Damon didn't care where she had gone, as long as she stayed that way until Elena was asleep. Or forever. It didn't matter.

Damon and Stefan walked back downstairs together, neither one talking. Damon wasn't even sure how to begin. He made a drink for his brother, and then one for himself before sitting down. Stefan didn't take the drink, and he didn't sit. He stood at the bottom of the stairs, his eyes black and his clothes torn and bloody.

He looked at his brother, and then looked away.

"I'm sorry, Damon," Stefan said, quietly. "But I'm done."

Damon silently watched his brother walk away and out of the house, not saying another word.


	9. Chapter 9

After calling Liz and having her send emergency crews to the hospital, Damon curled himself tightly around Elena, and held her all night even though she remained as unresponsive as before. The house was dark and quiet, but he didn't think he'd be able to sleep. He kept waiting for her to send images into his head, but all he could see and feel was emptiness. He was almost relieved. He didn't know if he could even begin to handle seeing the things she had experienced in the hospital. But a part of him wanted to know. Damon wanted to know so he could share that with her, so he could help her carry it. This was going to be too heavy for her to carry alone.

At five AM, he heard Katherine come back. She opened the door to his room and looked in, then quietly went away. He had the feeling that she already knew what had transpired that night. It had to be all over the news by now.

In the end, he did finally find sleep. But he didn't dream at all.

Damon woke up to see Elena, still in his arms, and staring at him.

"Good morning," he said, meeting her gaze. "Are we feeling better today?"

Elena said nothing, she only reached out her hand and gently traced his lips with her fingers. Then she rose up from his arms and left his bed and his room.

As soon as he was satisfied that she was only going to the guest room to shower, he went downstairs where Katherine was having her blood bag breakfast. He called Sheriff Forbes and discovered that, luckily for him, Elena had accidentally destroyed the hospitals' generator first, so no one inside knew who or what had attacked them in the dark. Only the receptionist in the lobby would have seen her, and dead receptionists told no tales.

Liz, of course, did not know who the attacker was either, and Damon did not enlighten her. He told her that he had taken care of the issue, and that she did not need to worry. He said he would give her the details later. He also got the total number of casualties. Nineteen. He did not ask how many of those had been infants. He did not want to know.

Damon's main priority was to find a way to keep the town from realizing that it had been Elena who had wreaked such havoc the night before, and Katherine proved to be surprisingly helpful in that regard.

"You know the easiest solution would just be to stake you, and present your body to the Council," Damon remarked to Katherine after he ended his call to the Sheriff.

"If you only need a dead vampire, I can definitely help you," Katherine said.

"Oh, really? Pray tell."

"Klaus sent one of his hybrids to invite me to negotiate our truce. I ripped her heart out before she had a chance to issue the invitation."

"Klaus still has hybrids?"

"He has three. Well, he _had_ three. Lucky for me, I was able to use the hybrid's phone to call Klaus and find out that he wanted to meet."

"You were so good at hiding, how did he even find you?"

"Oh, I've learned a few things. When I heard about the bloodline issue, and about Alaric Saltzman being a changed man, I put a coded ad in Craigslist indicating my willingness to open negotiations. My assistance for a truce. That's how. And now I have a dead hybrid in the trunk of the rental car sitting in your garage. I brought the body to Klaus as a peace offering, but he had no interest in it. I was going to ask you to dispose of it, anyway." Katherine smirked at him. "But you were too busy."

"Well, it's a win win, then. I'll just move her to my trunk and take her to the Sheriff. However - " Damon paused.

"Oh, I can stay with your naughty toddler. Her tantrums won't bother me at all."

"Right. That sounds like a brilliant idea. You couldn't possibly upset her by your very presence. Not at all."

"It's okay," Elena said from the top of the stairs. She walked down and joined them in the living room. "I don't mind."

"It's not exactly a question of _minding_," Damon said.

"If it makes you feel any better about it, there was a jar of smelly green stuff on the front doorstep this morning from your witch friend. I put it over there with the liquor."

"Look at you all helpful, Katherine. I might not stake you in your sleep tonight after all." Still, he hesitated, "Are you sure, Elena? I won't be gone long."

"I'll be fine." Elena gave him a small smile, but didn't meet his gaze. "I have my herbs."

"This is a bad idea." He looked at both of the girls, so alike, and yet so very different. Damon shrugged. "Okay, then. You two play nice."

Damon drove to and from the Forbes house faster than was probably safe, even for a vampire. However, things were quiet and uneventful back at the boarding house when he returned. Katherine and Elena were each reading a book in the living room, Katherine on the couch, and Elena in one of the wingback chairs.

Damon walked into the center of the living room and looked at them. "Okay, this is weird. Downright eerie."

"I told you we would be fine," Katherine said, looking up and smiling at him. "Elena has been a perfect angel. Well, you know. For a baby eater."

Damon froze, but Elena said nothing in response. She turned a page in her book and never looked up.

Damon cleared his throat. "Well, okay then."

"Did your lady sheriff take my dead hybrid off your hands?"

"She did. And she was extremely grateful that she had thought to call me first, instead of sending her deputies. Liz doesn't have much faith in her team's ability to handle an enraged hybrid." Damon addressed Katherine, but he kept his eyes on Elena.

"Smart lady. Klaus stopped by, just so you know. He's not super happy that we blamed the hospital incident on one of his, but he'll get over it. He was particularly interested in talking with Elena, but as you can see, she's not feeling very chatty."

"Yeah, well. So sorry to have missed that. Okay, guys, I have a contractor and crew coming this morning, in about fifteen minutes, so . . ."

"Not a problem," Katherine responded. "We'll just go upstairs. I'll look after her if she decides to go all serial killer on us. Elena and I are doing very well together. I think I missed my calling as a babysitter."

Elena stood up obediently, and followed Katherine up the stairs.

"Yeah, this is super freaky." Damon murmured to himself. "And will probably not end well."

* * *

The kitchen renovation underway, Damon was checking on the glazier who was replacing the living room window when the doorbell rang.

"Elijah," Damon said, opening the door. "You know, your brother never even bothers to knock. Comes right in and helps himself to the booze. And your sister waltzes in and gets all stabby right away. How did you get all the classy genes in your family?"

"Damon." Elijah nodded, as he stepped inside. "Is Elena ready?"

"Ready for what?" Damon turned as he heard Elena come up behind him. He got very still when he realized that she was holding her suitcase in her hand. "Oh. I see."

Elena and Damon stood in silence, facing each other.

"I have to go, Damon."

"You don't _have_ to do anything, Elena."

"If I leave, he'll come back to you."

"I don't care if he does. Don't do this."

"Yes, you do." Elena handed Elijah her case, and then turned back to Damon. "You'll always care, and so will he. Good bye, Damon." She reached up, and pressed her lips to his, cradling his face in her hands. Damon clung to her.

"This is not a good idea," he whispered to her, "don't go."

"It'll be okay," She stroked his cheek for a second, and then dropped her hand. "I have my herbs with me, and I'll take them regularly. Bonnie can send me more."

Damon winced, and opened his mouth to tell her the truth about her herbs. But he didn't.

Instead, he said, "But I love you."

Elena smiled, sadly. "You don't have to carry me anymore, Damon. And you need your brother."

Damon shook his head, not able to speak. Elena pulled out of his grasp.

"This is my choice, Damon."

Elijah, waiting patiently, said to Damon, "She will be well taken care of."

Damon nodded, his throat tight. Elijah took Elena's hand in his, and led her away to his waiting car.

Katherine appeared at Damon's shoulder. "Buck up, soldier," she said, patting him on the back, "After all, you still have me."

* * *

However, that wasn't entirely true. Within three days, Katherine had left as well, saying that his constant moping was bringing her down. The morning he woke up to find that Katherine was packed to go, he also received a phone call from Elijah.

"Elena is quite concerned that she receive a steady supply of herbs from the Bennett ladies, so I wanted to call and give you an address to send them to."

"Great," Damon replied. "and I don't suppose it's the same address where Elena actually is."

"Of course not."

"Because you both know I would high tail it out there and bring her home."

"Precisely. I do believe that I have a fairly good reading of your character by now, Damon."

"I'm sure you do," Damon said. "Fine. I assume that you know the truth about those so called herbs."

"Grass clippings, stinkweed, parsley, and a dash of oregano? Naturally. But Elena will be able to tell if I attempt to have them manufactured here."

"Well, at least you are allowing her to keep her illusions."

"We all need to keep our illusions, Damon. Otherwise, we would not be able to get of bed in the morning." Elijah paused, and then continued, "Actually, I did wonder if you could assist me in a project, Damon. I think the Mikaelsons and the Salvatores should go in together to help fund a new wing for the Mystic Falls Hospital. Perhaps a children's ward, and a new maternity area. Anything else you think they might need. It'll require a lot of paperwork, and someone has to coordinate with town officials, but it would be a worthwhile way to help the people of your town."

"Busy work, Elijah? To keep me from trying to find my girl?"

Elijah ignored the question. "Can you handle the details on your end?"

"Oh, why the hell not?" Damon answered him with a sigh. "I do so love helping people. It's what I live for."

* * *

The Mystic Falls Hospital massacre made national news. Fifteen people, four of them newborns, killed in a single attack on a hospital by a drug crazed woman. A drug crazed woman who also managed to mysteriously snap the necks of four teenagers outside of a Dairy Freeze on her way to the hospital. The local sheriff told the media that the woman had been brought down by a special task force that handled 'extreme cases'. Damon had been called many things before, but 'special task force' had never been one of them.

Damon's life fell into a routine. Meetings with Carol and hospital administrators in the morning, meetings with contractors for both the Salvatore house and the Gilbert house in the afternoons. The evenings he reserved for drinking himself into a stupor. On and on it went until he felt like his head would explode. After two weeks of this, he received his first letter. No return address, postmarked in some place in Massachusetts that he had never heard of, and probably wasn't anywhere near where she actually was. He would have known Elena's loops and dashes anywhere. He had once teased her that she stabbed her 'O's like a chronic liar, and clearly had the lowercase 'd' of a serial killer. It didn't seem that funny anymore, now that she actually was a serial killer. He was surprised to get a letter - didn't they have email in 'wherever-Elijah-took-Elena-land'? Couldn't Elijah spring for a cell phone for her that had a texting plan?

_I haven't ridden a bicycle since I was ten years old. I gave up because I hurt my leg so bad one summer falling off. But riding a bike seems easy now. Climbing a mountain seems easy. I could probably swim the Atlantic if I needed to. Scale the Himalayas. Win the Olympics in pretty much anything at all. Should I collect gold medals in something? It would be an interesting hobby. I'm trying to keep in mind that there are good parts to this, too._

Less of a letter and more of a scrap, really. But Damon kept that scrap in the wooden box where he used to keep Elena's daylight ring.

The second letter came three days later.

_Once I had many fears and now I only fear myself. That sounds like something someone important once said, but it was only me. I wonder what Ava Gardner thought of you when she met you?_

The third came two days after that.

I_ keep digging holes and burying myself inside. You think I speak metaphorically, but I don't. I keep digging holes, everyday, and I will keep on digging holes until I can dig one that can hold me._

And the fourth came nearly a week later.

_Did he come back yet?_

She had asked a question, Damon reasoned to himself. If she was asking, then she probably wants an answer, and he should actively try to send her one. So he went to Bonnie's house and put a folded note inside the jar with her next batch of herbs.

_No. But I don't care. Come home. - D_

She didn't come home. And he didn't hear from her again for some time.

* * *

The contractors had finished the kitchen at the boarding house, and the masons had completed the new fireplace mantle. Just for kicks, he had a crew renovate the second floor to combine two smaller bedrooms and create a large new guest room right next to his room, with a gigantic walk in shower. He put Elena's teddy bear on the bed. And then Damon bought a new drinks cart, and a fancy new decanter set, which he put to very good use.

He started to wonder why he was staying in Mystic Falls. There was a whole world out there, and nobody really needed him here. Nobody that he cared about, that is. But there was always more and more work to be done on the Gilbert house, fundraisers to organize for the new hospital wing, hoops to jump through with the zoning board, Founder's Day events to plan with the Council, and always, always Wilberforce Fell to be reassured about the oh so dangerous blonde vampire living across the street from him. If he hadn't seen Caroline inside her house, watching _The Jersey Shore,_ through his binoculars on the night of the hospital massacre, Wilber Fell would have tried to pin it on her, no doubt.

So Damon didn't leave. Instead, he found himself at the construction site for the Gilbert house one Saturday morning, overseeing a compelled crew - well, how else was he to get them to work on a Saturday? - and trying to explain to a befuddled contractor that the third step of the Gilbert porch _had_ to squeak and shift just like _so_, when he noticed Jeremy drive up in a brand new Range Rover.

"Fancy vehicle." Damon remarked, after he sent the contractor about his business, and Jeremy had walked up to him.

"Elijah sent it to me a couple of weeks ago. I guess it's from Elena."

"Guess so. You talk to her?" Damon asked with a deceptively casual tone.

Jeremy looked at him with surprise. "No, of course not. I'm dead, remember? But I've talked to Elijah a couple of times. He gave me a number that can-"

"Reach him anywhere in the world. Yeah, that's his schtick. As though we don't all have cell phones and international calling plans, for crying out loud. Did he say that she's doing well?"

"Wait - you never talk to her? I just assumed you guys were on the phone every day. Elijah actually says the same thing, every time. She's doing great, don't worry about her, we'll get to see her again someday. I don't think what he says means anything, but I just want her to know I am thinking about her."

"She killed anyone lately?" Damon asked, watching his crew as they tried to get the porch steps built just right once again.

Jeremy shook his head. "I don't know. Does it matter? You don't seem to mind when she does."

"It does and it doesn't. If she hasn't then, huzzah, Elijah is The Man and everything he is doing, including keeping her away from us, is the right thing. If she has . . . well, then I don't know why she can't just come the fuck home. She can kill people here just as easily as she can kill people wherever the hell he has stashed her, if that's become her new hobby."

"I have no idea what she has been doing. Elijah has never given me any details."

"No details, only platitudes," Damon said, with a sigh. "So, Gilbert, as you can see we are still a good long ways from finishing your house."

"It doesn't matter. I don't think I'd want to live there by myself anyway. Alaric's lease ran out on the apartment, so I've been staying with Matt at his place."

"What? Didn't his house burn down awhile back? I could have sworn I heard Caroline mention that amongst all of her other inane rattlings."

"Only a little bit of it, and we don't use that room, anyway. You get used to the smell after a while. And Matt covered the hole in wall with some plywood, so the raccoons can't get in anymore."

Damon shook his head in disbelief.

"What?" Jeremy said. "It's fine."

"This is ridiculous. I'm following you over to Matt's, and you are going to get your stuff and come back to the boarding house with me. It's not like I don't have seven bedrooms, for fuck's sake. Over five thousand square feet and not one inch of it smells funny. Except maybe Stefan's room, because I just don't know what he keeps in there."

"Um . . . okay?" Jeremy replied, looking puzzled. "I mean, if you are sure. Matt's landlord is a little crazy, and he lives next door, and his dogs shit all over the yard, and we think he lets them inside the house when we aren't there, so yeah. Even living with you would be an improvement."

"Gee whiz, kid, don't sound so enthusiastic."

In the end, Damon decided he was going to have to move _Matt Fucking Donovan_ into the boarding house as well. The poor kid still couldn't afford to replace his truck, which was causing him problems getting to work, and it looked like the electric company was very close to cutting off his power.

The boys settled in quite well, especially after Damon converted the study into the Playstation room. He found a slightly used truck for Matt, and showed him how to qualify for state health insurance. And when Jeremy had to do an essay on Prohibition, Damon handed him Stefan's journal from the 20s and said, "Hey, go nuts." Jeremy even brought home a date one night (a real live non-vampire non-ghost girl) and introduced Damon as his 'kind of guardian guy, not really, but he's like, in love with my sister who is not here'. Damon figured he could live with that as his bio.

So when Katherine called him a few weeks later, he answered the phone, "Salvatore Home For Lost Boys, Damon the housemaster speaking."

"Damon," Katherine said, sounding amused, "I'm not even going to ask what that is about. But if you are interested in adding one more Lost Boy . . ."

"You found Stefan."

"I did indeed."

"Good for you. I'll bet he was ecstatic when you showed up."

"Oh, he seems happy enough."

Damon paused, and then asked, "Is he coming home?"

"We both are," she replied. "But Stefan is insisting that I give you a heads up, first."

"Well, that's just fantastic. Let me dust off the old welcome mat. But do tell Stefan that we've got human inhabitants now."

"Gotcha. I'll let him know. He can come home, but no eating the boarders."

"Oh, worse than that. The boarders are going to have to invite him in. You, however, can sleep in the garage. Or maybe the yard. The weather is nice this time of year."

"Very funny, Damon. You do want me to bring your brother back to you, right?"

It wasn't the easiest question to answer.

"Yeah," Damon finally said. "Bring him home."


	10. Chapter 10

"_Matt Fucking Donovan!_" Damon roared from the kitchen, "I know you can hear me! Stop opening the fucking dishwasher after I have fucking started it!" Damon closed the dishwasher, and re-started it for the third time that hour. "Stupid fucking boys," he said to himself. "Beer bottles everywhere like they don't know where the recycling bin is, that grilled cheese is still in the pan from breakfast, and they leave all the doors open like we live in a fucking barn."

Nothing but quiet snickers from the Playstation room.

"Swear to God, I'm going to eat both of you someday! The first day I seem even a little bit low in the cellar!" Damon yelled. He finished tidying up the kitchen, and then gathered up the beer bottles to take them out back to the bins. He heard a car drive up, though, and paused before going out the back door. Quietly, he set the bottles back on the counter top.

He walked to the study and poked his head inside. "Humans, you might want to assemble at the front door. Need you to do a little inviting in for my baby bro."

Matt and Jeremy obediently followed him to the front of the house.

"It's really weird," Matt whispered to Jeremy, "that we have to invite Stefan into his own house."

"You don't have to whisper, idiot," Damon said, not turning around. He opened the door, and took Katherine's bag as she handed it to him.

Damon locked eyes with Stefan. "We cool?"

Stefan nodded at him.

"Okay, your cue, boys." Damon nudged Jeremy in the shoulder.

"Oh, right . . . um . . . Stefan and Katherine you can come in if you want," Jeremy said.

"I didn't say to invite _Katherine_." Damon sighed, as he pushed the boys aside and let Stefan and Katherine enter.

"Well, you didn't say not to," Jeremy complained, as he flopped down on the couch in the living room.

"I thought it was implied. Do I really have to say 'don't invite she-devils into your place of residence?' And get your shoes off the couch."

Katherine looked around at the gym bags on the floor, beer bottles on the side table, baseball gear piled in the corner, and laughed. "This is awesome," she said, still smiling. "I couldn't have pictured it any better." She wrinkled her nose, "A little smelly, though."

"Yeah, well, we're working on that, aren't we, Matt?" Damon smacked Matt in the back of the head, and then handed him Katherine's bag. "It's Matt's turn to be housekeeper this week, and he's been nothing but a total fail. Take Her Majesty's stuff upstairs."

"Which room?" Matt asked, looking at Katherine.

Damon raised an eyebrow, and turned to Stefan, still standing in the doorway. "Interesting question. Which room?"

"You can put it in my room," Stefan answered, quietly.

"Well, well, " Damon turned to Katherine, who gave him a very self-satisfied smirk. "I see."

After Matt came back downstairs, Damon shooed Jeremy and Matt out of the house, telling them to just be someplace else for a few hours while the grown ups talked about grown up stuff. Then, they all three sat down, and he passed around the whiskey decanter.

"This is downright cozy," Damon commented, "Isn't this cozy?'

"So, Damon . . ." Katherine said, "What did we miss?"

"Oh, nothing nearly as interesting as what I have missed, apparently." He gave his brother a pointed look, but Stefan didn't meet his eyes.

"Oh, fine. You aren't going to spill the dirty deets, I guess." Damon took a drink, and then looked up at the ceiling while he thought to himself. "Well, Elijah found a witch to fix Klaus, so Klaus is back to being Klaus, hooray, which means I've got the real Tyler Lockwood hanging out here all the time, playing video games and drinking my good bourbon. Apparently, being Klaus for awhile forced him to develop an actual palate, and he's not satisfied with Budweiser any longer. It also left him with an amusing accent, although that's starting to fade."

He looked over at the corner where the baseball gear was laying. "What else . . . oh, yes, Matt and Tyler convinced Jeremy to try out for baseball, which was hysterically funny. I ended up having to compel the coach to let him on the team, but he has no clue I did that, so mum's the word. Now if only I could compel everyone on the opposing teams to play poorly, we might actually have a shot this year. Oh, and EvilRic's silver stake is still missing, so Klaus is sweating it like mad. He's got an army of minions searching for it everywhere. Rebekah and Caroline are both neck deep in prom planning, so that's been keeping them completely out of trouble. The theme this year is 'Call Me Maybe'. Yeah, I don't get it either. There's a Founder's Dinner this weekend, and it's formal, so I do hope you have kept your tux pressed, Stef. There will be several events to commemorate what a truly awesome individual I am, coming up once the new hospital wing is ready to be opened in a few weeks, and . . ." Damon took a swig and swallowed it. "I think that's it. Unless you also want to know what level of Skyrim Matt has been able to master, in which case, you should probably just wait and ask him yourself."

Katherine shook her head sadly. "And not a word about your girl. Oh, how quickly she has been forgotten."

"Go to hell, Katherine," Damon responded with a pleasant smile.

"Have you heard from her?" Stefan looked up at him.

"No," Damon answered. "And I don't expect to. And now it's your turn. Why don't you fill me in . . . first off, did it really take you this long to track down my brother, Katherine?"

"Of course not. I found him in a bar in Chicago the day after I left here. I didn't even know a vampire could get that drunk."

"On alcohol or blood?" Damon inquired, swirling the bourbon around in his glass.

"Both," Stefan answered, shortly.

"Oh, he had been very naughty." Katherine said, and put her hand on Stefan's knee. "Left me a trail that was super easy to follow. After I found him, I took him to an old girlfriend's place to sober him up. She knows all kinds of tricks."

"'Old girlfriend' as in . . ."

"As in this girl I used to sleep with, Damon. Oh, don't raise your eyebrow at me. After a couple of centuries, _nobody_ sticks with only one gender. You'll figure that out soon enough."

"Not judging, just getting a visual, and then savoring it. So how does this old gal of yours know vampire sobering tricks?"

"Because she was a witch before she was a vampire. She was one of those judgey witches that drive you crazy even while they are 'driving you crazy', if you know what I mean, so I turned her just to shut her up about my sinful vampire ways. She was a trifle put out with me for awhile, but after a couple of decades she got over it."

"Oh, Katherine. I think that everyone you've turned, ruined, threatened, and terrorized should get together once a year for group therapy. We can rent out the Pensacola Convention Center."

"You are a fine one to talk, Damon."

"Okay, they can hold my yearly convention at the Marriott next door. Anyway, you were saying . . .?"

"Sylvia has decided to spend her eternity focused on collecting and digitizing grimoires. She's a Martin, you know, and she's _very_ interested in the collection your friend Bonnie stole from her Martin relations."

"Well, that sounds like a witch to former witch issue to me. Did you happen to mention your part in killing one of her Martin relations?"

Katherine cocked her head. "You know, I don't think that ever came up in the conversation."

"Of course it didn't. So this Sylvia Martin knows how to un-ripper a ripper when they get all ripper-y?"

"Not exactly that, but she did find a grimoire that described the fastest way to dry our boy out. One of her witchy great-nieces did the honors, and here we are." Katherine smiled at Stefan. He returned her smile a little hesitantly.

"Whatever the spell was, it definitely did work. I just wish I had known about it a hundred years ago," Stefan said, looking at his brother again. "I feel . . . good. Better than I have in many years. It's almost like blood doesn't matter so much anymore. It's like I can see everything so much more clearly now. I finally have a sense of perspective."

"Well, that's just swell, Stefan," Damon said, standing up. "So glad life has turned out peachy keen for you."

"Damon-" Stefan said, but Damon waved a hand and interrupted him.

"Hey, no. It's all good, brother. Clearly you have to do what you have to do. Now, if you two will excuse me, I'm just going to go up and make sure _Matt Fucking Donovan _remembered to put clean sheets on your bed."

* * *

Damon might not have expected to hear from Elena, but he got a call from her the very next night after Stefan and Katherine returned. He was pacing out on the patio, mentally preparing the speech he was supposed to give at the Founder's Dinner that Friday, when his phone rang from an unlisted number.

"Hello, Damon."

Damon held the phone tightly, reminding himself to breathe.

"Hello?" she said again, hesitantly. "It's me."

"Oh it is?" Damon said, finally. "Well, it _sounds_ like Elena. But I know that it can't be Elena, because Elena never calls me, and it's been over two fucking months since she left me. And I know it's not Katherine, because I can distinctly hear Katherine teaching Matt Donovan how to cheat at five card stud in the kitchen. So this must be some other doppelganger."

After a pause, Elena said, "You're letting Katherine corrupt Matt in the kitchen?"

"Card sharping is a useful skill, and the boy has far too few of those. If they move on to drinking games, I'll intervene. Matt is a lightweight even for a human."

Elena laughed, lightly, and then said, "He always was."

Damon said nothing for a second, and then, "What do you need, Elena?"

"Nothing, Damon. I don't need anything."

"Then what do you _want_?" Damon sighed, "Never mind. I know. You want to know if Stefan came home."

"I know he did. Caroline told me."

"You've been speaking to Caroline? Impossible. She'd never be able to keep that a secret."

"I only called her for the first time an hour ago."

"I see. And I suppose she told you that Katherine brought Stefan home."

"And that they are together. Yes."

"And? Did that make you go out and destroy half a town, or are we all cool, calm and collected now? Elijah already fixed you?"

"It's . . . it's not like that. Nobody is trying to fix me."

"Then what is it like, Elena?" Damon asked. "Because I can tell you what it's like for me. Everything _sucks_."

"I'm sorry, Damon. Caroline said that you were doing well. That you were keeping busy."

"I _wait_, Elena. Underneath all the 'busy', I'm just . . . waiting." He took a deep breath. "I'm not even sure what for, anymore."

"You want me to come home."

"Hell, yeah, I want you to come home. Isn't that what you want?" His voice roughened, "Because if it is, I can be there by morning. Anywhere you are, I can be there. We don't even have to say a word to Elijah, we don't even have to come back to Mystic Falls, we can just get into the Camaro and _go_."

There was silence on the other end.

"I don't know what to say, Damon."

"Are you well? Are you happy?"

"I don't know how to answer that," Elena said, sounding distant. "I don't know what you want to hear."

Damon was filled with fury. "You know, I'm super thrilled to know that you are still alive, and that Elijah hasn't staked you out of some noble Elijah-like reason for the greater good, but Elena? If you don't know what to say, _then don't call me._"

"You're right. I'm sorry." There was a click on the line as Elena hung up.

Damon crushed the phone in his hand. "Damnit, Elena. Damnit, damnit, damnit."

* * *

Damon killed two people that night. He had meant to kill people, and yet he didn't mean to kill those exact two people.

After Elena hung up on him, he grabbed a bottle of whiskey and went to his favorite laying in the road spot. Bump in the road. That's what he was. Elena said that every time they hit a bump in the road, he would lash out. Sabotage things. That wasn't completely true. He _was_ the bump in the road. He drank the whole bottle laying there in the dark and the quiet. Not a single car went by.

He knew that one would eventually, though, and he started to play a game with the Universe. If a white car came by with two people in it, male and female, he would snap the guy's neck and drain the woman dry. If a car of any color came by that had three people in it, all female, he would drink from them and then compel them to go away. If there were three males in it, he would eat them all and bury them in the woods. Only up to their necks, though, so it was easier for the ants to get at them.

He would look at their driver's licenses, he decided. Just to make things more complicated. If there were three people in a red car, two male and one female, all of them over 21, he would eat two of them, and make the third person believe that they had done it themselves. That would be funny. If everyone in the car was under 21, he would stand them in a circle and make them do the hokey pokey. And then eat them. Even funnier. If four people were in the car, and their total combined ages could be divided evenly by three, he would snap two necks and make the third person believe that their friends had been abducted by aliens. If two people came by and their license plate was out of state, and that state started with an 'N', and the car was blue, he would write them each a check for ten thousand dollars, and then send them on their way.

He was going to let the Universe decide.

The next vehicle that came by just past midnight belonged to Perry Lassiter. A truck, not a car, but it was dark blue and the license plate said 'North Carolina', even though Perry had lived in Virginia for the past five years. But Perry was lazy, and broke, and had never gotten around to changing his plates. Perry was also very drunk, and very tired, and his girlfriend Ashley was very drunk and very argumentative. They were coming back from a party that Perry's sister had thrown to celebrate her 25th birthday, and the theme had been vodka shots. Perry's sister had invited her very best friend in the whole world, the same friend that had de-virginized Perry five years ago when he was sixteen and had just moved to Virginia with his family - and that friend had let Perry's girlfriend know that fact very loudly in the middle of the party. And Perry was now dealing with the fall-out from that revelation.

Damon smirked to himself as he listened to them argue about whether or not that bitch Tressa had larger boobs than the aforementioned Ashley. He stayed where he was, bumpity bump in the roadity road, until he realized that they did not see him at all. By then, it was too late. The too-top heavy truck rolled over him, and then rolled off the road, and then rolled over in the ravine, and Perry and his girlfriend were dead. Deadity dead.

It was at that moment that Damon knew the Universe was only going to keep on fucking with him. He gathered up his whiskey bottle and his dignity, and went home.


	11. Chapter 11

Damon had to go early to the mall to buy a new phone. When he handed the sales clerk the mangled remains of his old one, he simply said, "An angry bear got a hold of it." He didn't even bother to compel the guy.

He used his new phone to dial into his daily conference call with the Mayor and the Sheriff from the mall parking lot, where he learned two things. One, the Mayor wanted to appoint him to lead the committee reviewing plans to install a guardrail along a particular stretch of road where a DUI the previous night had led to two fatalities, and two, Wilberforce Fell had filed a petition to force a recall of the Mayor. On top of that, Wilber was hoping to elect Damon as Mystic Falls' new mayor before the end of that fiscal quarter.

"Maybe it's for the best," Carol sighed on the phone. "Too many of the powerful and influential of this town know that my son is half vampire. I don't have any credibility anymore."

"Yes, but, Carol . . . I'm _all_ vampire. This is crazy."

"They don't know that, though. They just see all the good you do for this town."

"Whether it's a tragic DUI, or something far more sinister, " Liz interjected, "Mystic Falls knows it can rely on you, Damon."

Damon winced. It was too early in the morning for this kind of irony. And he was still a little drunk.

"I appreciate it, ladies, but I would rather we keep things as they are. Carol, I think you are a fantastic, not to mention a definitely foxy, mayor, and I will be on the phone today to convince Wilber Fell to rethink all this nonsense."

"Well, if anyone can, it's you. That man believes you hung the moon."

"He just thinks I'm the only one keeping his granddaughter from becoming Caroline's next snack."

Liz laughed. "As though Caroline would even bother. She says that Melody would taste like nail polish fumes and stupidity."

As soon as he got off the phone with Carol and Liz, it rang again.

"I have been _trying_ to get ahold of you for hours!" Caroline said, with no preamble.

"Sorry, technical malfunction. Is this about Elena?"

"No, why would this be about Elena? Because she called me last night? Oh, I'd almost forgotten that. No, this is important, this is about _prom_."

"Right," sighed Damon."Prom."

"In case you hadn't noticed, our track record in this area is _terrible. _Homecoming went all kablooey with hybrids, even though the band rocked, and then the Decade Dance was not exactly a success, although at least I looked amazing, but regardless - prom has to be _perfect_. It's our _last_ chance."

"Yeah, and? Is Becks giving you trouble?"

"Oh, Rebekah and I are on the same page about nearly everything. Other than the fact that her decor ideas are practically _vintage_. No, this is about Mr. Fell, Melody's grandfather."

"Wilber is on the prom planning committee?" Damon asked, honestly befuddled.

"No, idiot, Melody is. And her grandfather is refusing to let us have any meetings at my house, because, well . . . duh, and he doesn't seem happy for us to meet alone after school on school property, which would otherwise be the logical thing, so I told the committee that we had to have our meetings at your house, and that you would be there. Matt's on the committee, too, so it makes sense. And that shut him up."

"Um, Caroline? You told the town's resident vampire-phobe that his precious granddaughter would be meeting in a locale with," Damon did a rapid calculation, "no less than five vampires, and that seemed okay to you?"

"Well, he doesn't know that. He just heard your name, and decided that everything was going to be all right."

"So . . . does Melody know about your little vampirism problem?"

"Oh, no. Worse than that, she thinks Mr. Fell doesn't want her hanging out with me because I have herpes. Or some kind of STD. Can you believe that guy? Single handedly _ruined_ my reputation. So now that you know what I am dealing with here, please say that it's okay for us to meet at the boarding house."

"Fine," Damon acquiesced. "I'm over 160 years old, and I spend most of my time catering to the whims of children. Why the hell not?"

"Good. Because the first meeting is today at 3:15. Oh, and I have you down as an official prom chaperone, by the way. See you then!" Caroline hung up before he could even begin to articulate a response.

* * *

Damon leaned up against the doorframe into Stefan's room, and watched his brother write in his diary. "Let me guess - recording the ecstasies of the flesh as enjoyed last night between you and your paramour? We should publish that . . . call it _Fifty Shades of PussyWhipped._ Speaking of our mutual ex-girlfriend, where is she?"

Without looking up, Stefan replied, "Which one? By last count, we have three."

"Did you just make a joke? Hallufreakinlujah! I meant the only one who is a she-devil. Oh, wait, I suppose Rebekah counts as that, too. Well, you know. The brunette she-devil."

"She went shopping a few towns over."

"That figures. Thought her luggage was a little light for our elderly fashionista. Oh, and your math is off. We've had four mutual ex-girlfriends by my reckoning."

That did make Stefan look up. "Oh, I had forgotten Clementine Forthbridge."

"How could you forget, brother? 'Clementine of the shining curls, Clementine of the pearly smile, Clementine won't you be mine as I am thine?'"

"I was fifteen and hardly a poet, Damon," Stefan said, smiling.

"Oh, I wasn't poking fun. None of my feeble efforts won any favor at the time, either. And Clementine broke our hearts but good, didn't she?" Damon sighed. "Married George Lockwood's cousin from Richmond. Just because he looked ever so dashing in his uniform. That's the main reason I signed up, you know. Thought I had to in order to compete with the Captain Harry Lockwoods of the world, for the ladies' affections."

"I remember. Poor Captain Harry made it through the whole war, only to die in a freak horse and cart accident at Appomatox Courthouse during the surrender."

"Well, not exactly. I mean, I did _try_ to make it look like a freak accident."

"That was you?" Stefan raised an eyebrow.

"Yep. Took me forever to hunt down his exact regiment. The fact that the surrender was happening at the same time was a bit of a lucky coincidence, really. Created such a lovely distraction that nobody even heard him scream."

"You were such a vindictive dick."

"Oh, I still am, Stefan." Damon smirked at his brother. He cleared his throat, "And . . . not to ruin our merry trip down mem'ry lane or anything, but do you mind telling me just what triggered our other mutual ex-girlfriend to go all mass-murdery on a maternity ward the night you left?"

Stefan put his pen down, and ran a hand through his hair. "It was entirely my fault. I told her we could adopt."

"You told her _what_?"

"She was getting all worked up over the things she had lost, the things she would miss out on now that she wasn't human anymore. And I . . . I told her that it didn't matter that she couldn't have kids. I told her we could adopt." He looked away, "It was stupid."

"_Stupid_? That was _insane_. What kind of crazy person says that to a crazy person? Did you just _completely_ forget that _you_ aren't human?"

"Well, that's what happened. And then people died." Stefan paused, and then said, "You can be honest with me, Damon. No pretending. No posturing. When Elijah came and took Elena away - you _were _relieved. I know you were. You had to be."

Damon met his brother's eyes. "You don't know me at all if you can say that." They locked gazes for a second, and then Damon added, "Don't project onto me, brother. Feel what you have to feel, but don't put any of it on me."

Damon pushed himself away from the doorframe. "Just a heads up that both Vampire Barbies are having a tea party here after school. Uninitiated human involved, so keep Katherine well away." Over his shoulder, he added, "Oh, and I might be running for mayor, so use that occasionally non-stupid brain of yours to think up some campaign slogans. Something like 'Damon Salvatore, Savior of Mystic Falls', only, you know, less cheesy and more classy."

* * *

"Matt! Why do you keep on taking her side?"

"What? I'm not . . . I just said, I didn't think it was such a terrible idea, that's all. They sound kind of cute to me." Matt shrugged. "And you know - 'Call Me', and phones, makes sense."

"No! It doesn't matter if it makes sense! It's a terrible idea!" Caroline whirled around in her chair to glare at Rebekah, who was nonchalantly typing on her phone. "We have a budget! Eight foot tall plastic sculptures of 1950s pink princess phones are not included in that budget!"

"Well, maybe not in your budget, but then you don't have a brother with a black Amex." Rebekah cocked her head to the side. "Actually two brothers with two black Amexes. Is 'Amexes' the plural for 'Amex'? Damon, do you happen to know?" She glanced over her shoulder, as Damon entered the kitchen.

Damon scratched his chin for a second, "'Amex' from the Latin 'Amexicus' for 'conspicuous consumption'? I believe the plural is 'Amexus'."

Rebekah tapped on her phone., and said, "Well, there you go. They are already ordered. I got ten of them, just in case we need extra."

"Arrrrrgh." Caroline threw up her hands in the air. "It's like _nobody_ is listening to me."

The small brunette with big eyes sitting next to Matt cracked her gum, and then volunteered, "I was listening to you, Caroline."

"Well, a lot of good that does me, Melody," Caroline grumbled. "And Damon, do you mind? We are trying to accomplish something here."

"Hey, ignore me. Just came in for some -" He paused as he opened the refrigerator door, realized it was full of blood bags, and that Melody Fell had her giant googly eyes on him, and then closed it quickly. "Coffee. Just came in for some piping hot coffee." He crossed over the coffee maker and poured himself a cup. "Anyone else? Not Caroline, obviously, because coffee makes her hyper and irritable. And nobody wants to see that."

Caroline rolled her eyes at him. "Go away."

Damon leaned against the counter and took a sip.

"Sure thing," he said, winking at Melody Fell, who giggled at him. He straightened suddenly, as he recognized the footsteps approaching.

Stefan and Katherine paused together in the doorway.

Stefan looked panicked as he took in the group around the kitchen table.

"Oops", Katherine said, looking at Damon and giving him a little shrug. "Don't mean to interrupt."

"Elena!" Melody exclaimed, "I didn't know you were back in town. Are you just visiting from prep school?"

"Prep school?" Katherine looked at Damon and raised an eyebrow.

"Yes, _Elena_, " Damon gritted out, "That fancy prep school in Vermont where you won a scholarship to finish your senior year."

"Oh, yes," Katherine said, tossing her hair. "I just _love_ prep school in Vermont. The uniforms, the lacrosse players, the . . . the apple cider. I'm only home for a few days, to see my boy." She looked up at Stefan in adoration, and grabbed his hand. "Just couldn't stay away from him."

Melody gave a heartfelt sigh. "You guys are soooo sweet together. Are you going to come back for prom?"

Damon shook his head 'no', but Katherine ignored him. "Of course! I would never miss prom."

"Oh, good! Your hair looks great like that, by the way."

"Oh, I know!" Katherine said with a genuine smile, "Such an improvement. I can't believe that I wore it flat for so many years. Ugh."

"And I saw that they are almost done rebuilding your old house. Such a weird thing, to have a tornado go through it like that. Just like that tornado that went through the hospital the same night that crazy lady killed all those people." Melody added, "Oh, maybe it was the tornado that made her go crazy! Air pressure and stuff. I just thought of that. I wonder if there's any evidence that tornados make people crazy?"

"You might be right," Katherine agreed. "Or maybe the other way around."

Melody didn't quite get that. "Huh?"

Stefan nudged Katherine in the side, and inclined his head away from the kitchen.

Melody suddenly looked at Stefan, puzzled. "Um, Stefan? Do you even go to our school anymore?"

Damon moved towards the doorway, and ushered Katherine and Stefan out. "Stefan decided to get his GED, and work towards his lifelong dream of becoming a chiropractor. Okay, you kids, back to work. This prom ain't going to plan itself, you know."

* * *

Damon paused in the act of pouring himself a glass of bourbon. "Want one?" he asked Rebekah, who had appeared behind him.

"Melody hasn't quite left yet, and I doubt that she needs to see Matt and Jeremy's guardian plying me with liquor. I am but a simple high school girl, you know."

Damon turned and raised his glass in a salute to her. "Never simple, Blondie Becks." He took a drink. "You and I are long overdue for a little chat."

"Everyone else has gotten over the fact that I killed your precious Elena - have you?"

He shrugged. "We all make mistakes."

"And now she's a rampaging killing machine."

"Some of us make bigger mistakes than others."

Rebekah took his glass from his hand, and downed the contents in a single swallow. "Niklaus is still looking for that silver stake, you know. I'm surprised you aren't taking a more active role in those proceedings."

"I offered. But as your brother kindly informed me, my services were not wanted. He doesn't rate my abilities very high . . . which is not a surprise considering how epically all of my plans have failed since our paths first crossed. So we have defined areas of concentration - Klaus is on stake duty, and my job is to hold things together through the Council and keep Mystic Falls as vampire friendly as possible. Your job is to plan prom. Oh, and to stop robbing all of my favorite blood banks." He got another glass and fixed himself a new drink.

"And Elijah's job is to keep his new fledgling from murdering half of Manhattan. It hasn't been easy, you know. In case you are wondering, she was looking rather peaked at the last family dinner."

Damon went very still. "You've seen Elena?"

"Oh, yes. Family dinners at Elijah's penthouse, twice a month into perpetuity. It was a deal that Nik and Elijah made when Nik was inside Tyler's body and feeling vulnerable. Nik wanted regular family dinners in exchange for all of the daggers and the white oak ash. Oh, and Elijah had to promise not to rip his heart out while he was still Tyler, of course."

Damon looked down at his glass. "So Elena is in New York."

"Oh, dear," Rebekah covered her mouth, "I probably wasn't supposed to tell you that. She hasn't been there the whole time. I believe Elijah sends her to the Berkshires whenever she slips up."

"Have there been a lot of slip ups?"

Rebekah shrugged. "Not an unusual amount. Maybe a couple dozen casualties or so. She's a bit less of a wrecking ball, though. That's an improvement."

Damon tightened his grip on his glass, and then eased up. "Were you ever like that? When you were newly turned? Elijah made it sound like it runs in the family."

Rebekah cocked her head as she thought for a second, "Not so much like Elena, really. I don't know if we were all just made of hardier stuff back then, or if it had to do with our mother's spell, but I don't recall ever being quite so unsubtle about my rages. The way she carries on, so tacky. Niklaus, of course, has had some truly spectacular tantrums over the centuries. He was always the first to burn down a house if a neighbor wouldn't invite him in. I wasn't big on destroying property, though. More of a neck snapper. Elijah just preferred to compel whoever he was offended by into killing themselves, so much tidier. He compelled a whole Hussar regiment once into killing each other because they got in his way when he was riding to Prague for a festival. And Kol . . . well, Kol likes to tear apart animals and children when he is upset. I doubt that has changed much over the years."

Damon grimaced into his glass."Lovely family. Starting to wonder why I didn't just help Ric and Esther get rid of the whole lot of you."

"You might be a lot of things, Damon, but you aren't suicidal."

"Oh, you'd be surprised. I have had my moments."

"So . . ." Rebekah moved closer to him, and met his eyes. "Now that you know where Elena is, what are you going to do with that information?"

Damon looked at her, and set his glass down on the drinks cart. "Not a damn thing." He reached out, and pulled Rebekah to him, roughly. "If she wanted to come home, she would."


	12. Chapter 12

Rebekah didn't stay the night. She left sometime after midnight, citing a Physics test in the morning. Damon never bothered to raise his head from his pillow to say goodbye. It didn't matter.

In the morning, Stefan and Katherine both raised an eyebrow at him, but they said nothing. Too many vampires in the damn house, Damon thought to himself, as he left to tackle a day full of minutiae and boredom.

At the meeting to review budgeting concerns for the play area being built beside the new hospital wing, Damon kept finding himself distracted. He started out doodling pictures of swing sets and slides, but they turned into vines and vines of climbing roses, like the ones his mother used to have going up the columns of their old house before the war. And then he occupied himself by trying to remember snippets of the poems Stefan used to write for Clementine. 'Heart shaped lips and bluebell eyes, yellow cotton hair, and moonlit skies, O Fair Clementine!'. Stefan used to leave the poems in the hollow of an old tree, and Damon and Clemmie would take them out and laugh about them before making love in a nearby field. He used to count her freckles, and name every one of them. O Fair Clementine, indeed. She was his first, his everything. Then she married somebody else - and just as he thought his heart would never beat again, Katherine arrived. Then he realized he'd never been in love before at all.

Funny, that he'd actually thought Katherine had taught him about true love, and then he discovered that, no, he'd been wrong again. He'd almost completely lost himself when he found out that Katherine was a heartless sham, a fraud, a shallow bitch. No, that wasn't fair. Katherine was none of those things. She was . . . a complex individual. That was about as kind as he could allow. Regardless, she was not the woman that had captured him so completely in 1864, and she never had been. That woman was a phantasm. His love had been a phantasm, too. Maybe just a foreshadowing of the very real woman, and the very real love, that would someday become his new everything.

As Gwen Fell (Too many Fells in this damn town, Damon decided - maybe I could thin the herd, starting with this one?) raised her hand, and started to question the hospital administrator's opinion about the most cost effective playground surfacing - recycled tire rubber versus cedar mulch - Damon found himself beginning a letter to the woman who was his new everything. He started out telling her about Clementine Forthbridge of the yellow cotton hair . . . about how he named the freckle on her left shoulder 'Jefferson Davis', and the one on her right shoulder 'Ulysses S. Grant', and then he ended the letter by describing in great detail how hard it was to make Harry Lockwood hold still long enough for the horse to crush his skull. He signed the letter with an oversized 'D', folded it up, and ended his meeting peremptorily. They had decided on cedar mulch. The heavens rejoiced.

Damon stopped by Bonnie's house to slip his letter into that week's jar of grass clippings and etcetera. He also let her know about Katherine's friend, Sylvia Martin. Katherine never mentioned anything casually. She had told him about Sylvia for a reason, and if that reason ever became manifest, he didn't want the Bennetts to be taken by surprise. Bonnie was concerned, but not alarmed, so Damon shrugged and left.

Next stop, the dry cleaners to pick up his, Jeremy's, and Matt's tuxes for that night's dinner. As head of the Council, it was his responsibility to speechify and be ceremonial, and he expected both of his boys to be there lickspittle sharp and keen. They hadn't let him down yet. He missed Ric at these things, though. He missed Ric pretty much all the time, actually. And seeing Meredith at these council events only made it worse. Damon didn't want to be reminded of that night in the Salvatore crypt, so it was easier to just avoid her entirely. She seemed to feel the same way. A nod, a sad smile, a blank face. Lots of liquor.

After putting the tuxes in the car, he sat in the parking lot of the dry cleaner's for a few minutes, just staring at the signs in the window. Same Day Service On Shirts And Slacks. Alterations By Marian. 5% Senior Discount. WE CLOSE EARLY ON TUESDAYS NO EXCEPTIONS. He wondered what was so special about Tuesdays. He kinda wished he had something so special on a Tuesday that it was worth leaving all your responsibilities behind for. No Exceptions.

He felt like his day, his life, was drifting along, and nothing was ever going to be special again.

* * *

"No. No, no, no. No. Are you catching the theme here? Because, no."

Everyone was looking super sharp and debonair, even Jeremy, whose tux didn't quite fit across the shoulders anymore. And there was Katherine, draped all over Stefan, and wearing something blue and a little bit sparkly.

"Oh, please. No one will even guess for a second that I'm not Elena. In fact, it would look strange if I didn't come, after that Melody girl told half the town that Elena was home for the weekend."

"Ah ha! So that's why you made a point to crash the meeting. Trying to force my hand?"

"I just don't see any reason for me to be under house arrest. And now that your girl is all grrrrr! and eating babies, I make a better Elena than she does." Katherine flipped her long dark hair, and glanced over at Stefan for support.

Stefan shrugged. "I can't see that it will do any harm."

"Whipped!" exclaimed Damon. "For fuck's sake, Stefan!"

He looked at his brother, and then at Matt and Jeremy who were carefully looking anywhere but at Katherine, and her impressive cleavage.

"Fine," Damon grumbled. "But you are up to something."

"Oh, Damon . . . not up to anything but a good time with these handsome men." Katherine leaned over, and kissed him on the cheek. "My sweet boy." She swanned through the front door and over to Stefan's car in the driveway.

"She-devil," Damon continued to mumble, as he ushered Matt and Jeremy to the Camaro. "Sly she-devil who is so going to fuck me over somehow."

"And Elena doesn't walk like that!" He called out to her.

To her credit, Katherine did a very good job at toning down her overall Katherine-ness at the dinner. She didn't even once try to distract him during his speech, too focused on playing footsie under the table with Stefan. Which, unfortunately, was not all that out of character for Elena, anyway. Once Damon was finished bolstering the multitudes with praise for the town, the Mayor, the Sheriff and the long-dead and departed (ha!) Founders, he excused himself from his table and took his place at the bar. As customary at these events, he raised a glass to where Jeremy had earlier indicated GhostRic was standing. Funny how Ric had hated these events in life, and yet couldn't keep away in death. The next time he managed to prevail upon Jeremy to act as medium, he was going to ask Ric if death made these things better or worse. Had to be better. They couldn't get any worse.

"Well, I have to say that Elena looks like she's doing very well."

"Liz, my friend." Damon turned to greet the sheriff, as she appeared beside him. He waved the bartender back over. "Drink?"

"No, thank you, Damon. Not feeling very celebratory. Just needed an excuse to step away from my table."

Damon looked over to where Liz had been assigned to sit. "Yikes. Wilber, Betty Jo, Gwen and Little Melody herself. How did you get so lucky?"

Liz sighed. "Caroline is the lucky one. The Council is still not comfortable having her attend Founder events, so she gets to stay home and watch tv. Tyler is not allowed to come either, so he is keeping her company."

"I'm sure he is," Damon murmured. "I don't see any of the Mikaelsons here, either."

"When Carol extended the invitation, Klaus said they were leaving for New York this evening for some kind of family event. I can't say that I miss them in the slightest." She then inclined her head towards Katherine and Stefan. "I didn't even know your brother and Elena had gotten back together."

"Oh, yes. As you can see, those two are smelling of April and May and all things springtime. Young love, so sweet."

"Oh, good. So glad. They always made such a lovely couple." Liz smiled at Damon, and then rolled her eyes as she made her way back to her table of Fells.

There was dancing after dinner, naturally, and Damon felt his ire rise as he watched his brother oh-so obediently follow Katherine onto the dance floor. Stefan never even offered a token protest.

"Something is wrong, damnit," Damon muttered. He went over to the corner where Matt and Jeremy were sneaking vodka shots, collared Jeremy, and dragged him over to the dancing pair.

"May we cut in?" Damon asked. As Katherine smiled and raised her arms to him, he thrust a terrified Jeremy at her. "Please dance with your _sister_, Jeremy."

"Do I have to?" Jeremy whispered, as Katherine regally accepted the change and swept him out onto the floor.

Damon smirked at Jeremy, before taking Stefan's arm in a tight grip and urging him out of the french doors onto the patio. "Time for a chat, loverboy."

"What is your damage now, Damon?" Stefan asked him in amusement.

"Oh, you think this is funny, but it is not funny." Damon took a step back and looked his brother right in the eyes. "Just what is going on here?"

"You mean, with this dinner? You tell me, this is your area of expertise now. Personally, I think you should let the caterer know that the chicken was a little dry."

"Hardy har har. And yes, I did make a note of that, but that's not the point. The _point_, Stefan, is that Katherine brings you back to Mystic Falls, and all of a quick sudden it's nothing but, 'Yes, Miss Katherine, whatever you want, Miss Katherine, oh we are so in love again, Miss Katherine'."

"And?"

"And! And it's fucking creepy and wrong!"

"I don't know what you are trying to imply. Katherine and I are together."

"Obviously. And that isn't weird to you? It was only a couple of months ago that you were in love with Elena."

"A human Elena," Stefan said quietly. "I was never able to love her as a vampire."

"Again, _obviously_. But the Stefan who was in love with human Elena, the Mistress of Compassion, cannot possibly be the same Stefan in love with Katherine, the Dark Queen of Selfish Misery."

"You never really understood Katherine, Damon."

"I never understood Katherine? Okay, fine, I will grant you that, because to understand her takes a mind as twisted as hers, so yes, thankfully, I am not able to understand her." Damon paused, and then said, "I suppose you are willing to let go of everything she did to torment Elena? Everything that she did to drive you and Elena apart not so very long ago?"

"I forgave you those very same things."

Damon shook his head. "It's not the same thing, brother."

"Oh, I think it is, _brother_."

Damon stepped closer, and grabbed his brother's arm again. "There is nothing straight in her, Stefan. She is crooked through and through. There's no heart inside, no feel for the truth. She will feed you lies and trickery and _ruin_ you."

"Like I said, you have never really understood her. And you don't understand the way we feel about each other." Stefan shook Damon off, and moved back towards the doors.

The doors opened before he reached them, and Katherine emerged, leading Jeremy out onto the patio. "Problem, boys?"

Damon threw up both hands. "No problem, Miss Katherine."

"Well, that's good," she nodded towards Jeremy, "I think the younger Gilbert here wet his pants. You might need to take him home and change him. Come on, Stefan. They are playing one of our many, many songs, and tonight is a night for dancing."

Stefan followed her inside, leaving Damon and Jeremy standing on the patio.

"That woman is a lot scarier than my sister," Jeremy said.

"You speak the truth, son," Damon said with a sigh. "You speak the fucking truth."

* * *

Even Rebekah noticed how un-Stefanlike Stefan was being. She returned from New York on Sunday morning, and was in Damon's bed by Sunday night.

"Your brother is behaving strangely, even for a Salvatore."

"Hmmm . . . I know, right?" Damon looked up from where he had been nibbling on her shoulder. "It's all Katherine's fault."

"I don't like her," Rebekah stated, as she stretched beneath him. "You should get rid of her."

Damon laughed. "Oh, yes. That's easy peasy. I'll get right on that, your Highness." He captured her face in his hands, and they stopped talking.

Rebekah was right, of course, Damon knew that. He _should_ get rid of Katherine. But part of the problem was that Stefan was just so damn happy. Passively happy, but happy nonetheless. Damon even heard him whistling in the shower. Stefan didn't whistle. He didn't even whistle when he was dating Elena, and dating Elena should have made him the most ecstatic person on the whole fucking planet.

So Damon did the most brotherly thing he could think of. He waited until Monday, when Stefan and Katherine-as-Elena were off on a date night at the Grill, and he swiped Stefan's most current diary from his desk.

Stefan didn't have his diary with him, of course, when he left Mystic Falls after the hospital massacre, so Damon hadn't expected there to be any entries in there from when Katherine found him in Chicago. But he had been pretty prolific since returning.

The first day back home he wrote:

_I've never felt like this before. It's as though a veil was lifted from my eyes and I can suddenly see clearly. And all I see is her. Blood doesn't matter. Nothing else matters. Nobody will ever understand our love. I must stay quiet because nobody will ever understand. This is forever. She and I forever. We will be together forever._

The second day back:

_It is a brand new day a brand new life. We will live together in happiness. My love has shown me the way. I have never felt like this before. All I can see is her. This is forever. Nobody will ever understand our love. They will try to drive us apart but this is forever._

The third day back:

_Damon does not understand our love. She says I need to stay quiet. I cannot make him understand that we are happy and this is forever. I am not even hungry. Blood means nothing to me now. All I can see is her. Nothing matters but her. This is forever. I can see so clearly now. The veil has lifted. She and I forever._

Day after day, the same.

Damon dropped the book on the floor. "Holy fuck."

* * *

He took the diary to Bonnie at the high school the next day. This was juju of some kind, he was sure of it.

"What are you saying, Damon?" Bonnie asked, raising an eyebrow. "Some kind of love spell? There's no such thing."

"She compelled him, then." Damon paced the span of Ric's old classroom. "I mean, read it!"

Bonnie looked down at the book, and scanned the entries. "Okay, it's definitely weird. Doesn't sound like Stefan at all."

"Doesn't sound like _anybody_ at all. Nobody sane, that is. He's possessed, or compelled, or juju'ed or something."

"Maybe it was a lobotomy?" Bonnie suggested.

Damon shot her a look. "Right. Because Katherine has become a brain surgeon overnight." A thought occurred to him. "That friend of hers . . . Sylvia Martin. Former witch, been alive forever, extensive witchy cookbook collection. She could know a thousand spells that you don't."

"I guess so," Bonnie agreed. "But a love spell . . . it would have to be dark magic."

"Obviously, Bonnie," Damon said, rolling his eyes. "We are talking about Katherine. That's the only kind of magic she would be interested in."

Bonnie sighed, and then met his gaze. "Okay, I will look into it. No promises, but I'll check with my mother to see if she has ever heard of such a thing, and I'll even go over to the old witch house and see if the dead have anything to say. If Katherine's friend used dark magic on Stefan, the dead witches won't be happy about it. It will mean that a balance was struck somewhere. A sacrifice made."

"And they hate that, right? Well, good. Maybe that will get them to talk."

"But, Damon? If Katherine did use dark magic . . . well, you know Katherine. She will not let you just poke into this and upset her plans for your brother. So, you might want to be careful and leave things alone for now. She's not hurting him. Well, not exactly."

"No, she's just using him as a sex toy and making him be super lame," Damon said, "Okay, fine. Maybe that's not _exactly_ hurting him. But it sure hurts to watch."

Bonnie gave him a stern look. "So you'll back off and let me look into it?"

"Yes, Bonnie," Damon answered with a smirk. "Careful, though, or I'm going to start thinking that you care."

"Oh, I don't," she responded. "But Elena does, and I hate to think of what civic buildings she will tear up or tear down, if you let Katherine stake you one night."

"Valid point." Damon took the diary back, gave her a salute, and left the problem in her hands.

He'd give Bonnie a week, he decided. No, he was actually giving Katherine a week. She'd waited over a century and a half for her precious Stefan to love her back, so he was going to give her one more week to bask in it. Then he was bringing the bitch down, regardless of what Bonnie found out.


	13. Chapter 13

AN: Wanted to thank everyone again for the kind reviews. ;)

* * *

Damon was idling on the piano, waiting for Rebekah to come over, when the call came. Unlisted, of course.

"Wouldn't it have been much easier to snap Captain Harry's neck first, and _then_ let the horse crush his skull? It was a pretty crazy time during the surrender, right? It's not as though anyone would have noticed that the horse couldn't have broken his neck in that precise way."

"True," Damon responded. "Do you spend a lot of time pondering the ways in which I could have done a better job of killing people over a hundred years ago?"

"Well, everyone needs a hobby, Damon."

"And I suppose you are becoming a bit of an expert in this area yourself."

"I do okay."

Damon laughed. "This conversation is a dark one for you, Elena."

"Haven't you heard? I'm dark and crazy now."

"Yeah, there's that rumor going around. I think I like it."

"You would, you psycho."

Damon couldn't keep the smile off his face. "I'm glad you called back."

"Well, I finally have something to say."

"And what is that?"

"I miss talking to you."

"Well, that's not a big surprise." Damon walked over to the couch and sat down. "Because I am awesome."

"Yeah, you are."

"You ready to leave the Bright Lights, Big City?"

"You know where I am?"

"Your Aunty Bekah spilled the beans."

Elena laughed. "How did you know that Kol makes me call her that?"

"I didn't know - but you are one of the family now, right?"

"I suppose so. Mikaelson trust fund and everything. It even reads 'Elena Mikaelson' on my credit cards, now."

"That's creepy. But ugh, you have to hang out with Kol? What a douchebag."

"Hey, that's my favorite uncle you are talking about," She laughed again. "Just kidding. He's an ass. But he's definitely the funniest thing about these ridiculous family dinners that Elijah and Klaus make us do. Everyone sits in fancy chairs and glares at each other around the table, and then Kol strolls in and calls me his dearest niece, and Elijah my darling papa, and suddenly it doesn't seem quite so horrible."

"Aunty Bekah must love it."

"Oh, I think it's Klaus's face that you would pay to see. He's never gotten over the fact that I no longer have any extra special doppelganger blood. Every time he looks at me, he gets all pouty. It's really very satisfying."

"You are evil. Don't you feel even the least bit sorry for your poor Unky Klaus?"

Elena giggled, "Stop it, or Brother Bartholomew will hear me. I'm supposed to be meditating."

"You are what now? Brother who?"

"Oh, he's my . . . well, I guess he's like my confessor? I mean, he's more like my friend, but he's a monk, so . . . Seven hundred years ago, Klaus thought it would be funny to turn a whole convent of nuns into vampires. Poor Brother Bartholomew was visiting that night, and got turned in the melee. So he's another one like me. High on Original blood, and a whole lot killery. But he's had several centuries to work on his issues, so now he's helping me."

"Elijah's idea, I'm assuming."

"Yes, Bart has been Elijah's good friend for ages. He lives in the apartment right next to mine. This building is really nice, Damon. One of Elijah's corporations owns it, and only vampires who work for him live here. The rest of the family all have apartments here, too."

"Well, I have to admit that you sound good. Elijah and the monk must be doing something right."

"Oh, I have my moments. Up, down, up, down. Happy happy, and then so sad. I guess it goes with the territory. I got my fresh herbs from Bonnie today, so maybe that's why I feel so good. They seem to work better when they are really fresh."

"Hmmm . . . maybe that's it."

"Oh, I forgot to mention that Bart knew your friend Mary Porter really well."

"Is that so?"

"She was one of the nuns at the convent. Sister Mary Sebastian. How freaky is that? She was the last of them to survive this long, which has been kind of sad for poor Bart. He's so upset that she's dead. He won't speak to Kol at all, not that Kol cares. He calls Bart 'Friar Tuck', and is always teasing him about being fat. Brother Bartholomew just sits there, super offended, and tries not to tear down the building. He's a wrecking ball just like me. That's one of the reasons why we get along so well. We prefer destroying buildings to destroying people, I guess? It's our way of redirecting the emotional energy."

"Wait, wait, wait . . . too much, manic girl, let's back up. Scary Mary was a nun? This is brand new information. I am, literally, in shock."

"I knew that would surprise you. Brother Bartholomew keeps a picture of her in his room, and he lights a candle for her every Sunday. I think he always had a crush, and never told her. Over 700 years, Damon," Elena sighed. "Poor guy."

"Well, some of us are just like that, I guess. Faithful until the end, and even after."

Damon heard the front door open, and he cleared his throat. Just as Rebekah entered the room, he said, "Got to run, Council meeting."

"Oh, I understand," Elena responded, sounding a little down. "But write again, okay?"

"Sure, Elena. I will." He ended the call, and then sat for a second, before looking up at Rebekah standing beside him.

"Never been called a 'council meeting' before," she said. "Does that mean we need to review last session's minutes? Because they were quite naughty, if I recall. It might make me blush to read them aloud."

"No, that's okay," Damon pulled her down to the couch and onto his lap. "We can skip right to 'new business' if nobody has any objections."

* * *

Instead of waiting for the weekly herbal shipment, Damon sent Elena a letter the next day to the address Rebekah gave him. Park Avenue. His girl was living the high life, apparently.

He wrote her an account of that whole stupid night he spent as a whiskey soaked bump in the road, waiting for the Universe to determine his next move. She would like the bit about making teens do the hokey pokey. She would also appreciate the irony of how he was now the one in charge of reviewing plans for the guardrail to be installed at the same spot where he caused the DUI to happen. Twice, the county engineer had sent him dimensions that were way too short. He knew he could make a car go over into the ravine with a bounce much higher than that, so he kept sending them back. But the guy wouldn't listen. One of these days, Damon was going to get frustrated enough to go and install the damn thing himself. He could make that the main plank of his mayoral campaign. 'Damon Salvatore knows how to fix the problems of Mystic Falls because he causes most of them'. Only snappier.

Speaking of, nothing he had said yet had convinced Wilber Fell to halt his petition to recall Mayor Lockwood. To add strangeness to an already surreal situation, Klaus had made it clear that if Damon decided to run in a special mid-term election, he would run, too. Damon found the idea completely ludicrous. He didn't even know why Klaus would bother. What did Klaus know about running a town administration meeting? Klaus had never even been to a town administration meeting, and Damon knew that, because _he_ was at most of them. All of them, lately, because the new hospital wing was the main topic of the agenda. Everyone had an opinion.

The first phase of construction, the maternity ward and a fancy new lobby, were slated to open in a couple of weeks, which was record time for that kind of project. Amazing what you could do with Mikaelson money and a compelled construction crew. Too bad Damon couldn't also compel the town officials he had to work with to make faster decisions - but far too many of them were also on the Council, and chock full of vervain. Which he also supplied. Life had become a bit complicated.

Damon didn't even want to be mayor, because being mayor would be a major pain in the ass. But he'd be damned before he'd let anyone else take the job. He'd worked too hard for too long to trust someone else to run this town in a way that kept both humans and vampires happy. Or at least oblivious. Obliviousness was good, and Damon doubted Klaus prized it as highly as he did.

He wondered what Giuseppe would think of his son, the town leader. Rolling in his grave, no doubt. Damon would have to dig him up sometime to check.

* * *

Damon was just coming home from a meeting to _finally _finalize the guardrail dimensions and installation, when he was assaulted by an angry Katherine.

"This!" she said, shoving her phone in his face. "You have to stop this."

"I have to stop what?" Damon took the phone from her, and looked at the screen. "Huh. You were at a New York club last night?" He squinted at it, and said, "Oh, I see. Elena."

"Yes, Elena. Pretending to be me. And she got herself plastered all over Page Six today. With _my_ name in the caption."

"Well, you have to admit that she makes you look good. That dress is . . . wow."

Katherine took her phone back with an inarticulate growl, and threw it across the room. "As if I would wear those heels with that dress! Besides, do you know how many people are looking for me? And there she is, prancing around, throwing people out of windows, and using my name. I never let myself get high profile. _Never_."

"Then this is a good thing for you, Katherine," Damon responded. "I really don't see your problem with this. Because, in case you haven't noticed, _you_ aren't in New York."

"That's right," Katherine said. "_She_ is. She's ruining my reputation, and making herself a target in the process. Go and get her in hand, Damon. I don't care how strong she thinks she is now, there are scarier people than her out there who are going to come after her now. Think about that." Katherine left the living room with a flounce. Damon looked at Stefan, who was sitting in a chair and writing in his diary.

"Stefan?" Damon asked. "Any input?"

Stefan looked up, "Huh?" He furrowed his brow. "Did you ask me something?"

Damon sighed, "Never mind, puppet boy."

He took out his phone and booked himself a flight for the next morning. As hesitant as he was to leave right then, still not knowing how to solve his she-devil problem, he still had to admit that he was looking forward to getting away. Going clubbing in NYC with a dark and crazy Elena? Sure as hell beat sitting with a mess of Fells at a town administration meeting discussing the Founder's event calendar.

* * *

Damon found Elijah's building on Park Avenue pretty easily. A vampire building, Elena said. Three in the afternoon on a beautiful sunny spring day, and almost every shade and blind was drawn shut. Apparently, Elijah's munificence towards his employees did not extend to replacing all of their apartment windows with UV protected glass.

Damon sat across the street, at a sidewalk table outside a Starbucks. He was in no particular hurry, may as well enjoy the city and a latte. It was freeing just being gone from Mystic Falls, gone from his meetings and his conference calls, construction sites and building plans, budget spreadsheets, and endless things to do and sign. Maybe Elijah could free up an extra apartment for him, too.

He was sunning himself, and thinking about a walk through Central Park, when Elena sat down across from him and reached out for his latte. "Your vampire super hearing sucks. I've been calling your name from across the street."

Damon pulled his sunglasses down to give her a stern look. "Adding latte thief to your long list of criminal pursuits?"

"Hmmm," she responded, wiping the foam off her lips, and putting the cup back down in front of him. "There's a better place around the corner, actually. They over roast the beans here, just like every Starbucks."

"Oh, the jaded city girl. Listen to you." He smiled at her, then a thought occurred to him and he stopped smiling. "What the hell, Elena? You do know there are _people_ here."

"I know," she said. "Hey, I'm cool as long as I'm outside. Get me into an enclosed space with any of them, and it's not very pretty, I'm afraid. But out here . . . well, take a whiff. It's not like I can be overwhelmed with the scent of human blood here. Not with the aroma of this city all around."

"It's a valid point," he conceded. "I thought Elijah was mad for bringing you here, but maybe it makes a _little_ bit of sense."

"Lots of local crime and mayhem to cover up my mistakes, lots of local vampires, too." Elena said, "Nobody pays much attention to me."

"Well, except for Page Six, apparently."

"Oh," Elena had the grace to look embarrassed. "So that's why you are here. That was Brother Bartholomew's idea. Well, sort of."

"Your friend the monk told you to pretend to be Katherine. Really." Damon raised an eyebrow.

"No, it's just . . . it's a technique, a way of practicing detachment. You play a role, adopt a different persona. So that way, whatever happens, whatever emotions that are stirred up, aren't actually_ your_ emotions. They belong to that other person. Even a split second of detachment can mean the difference between bringing a whole building down, and, you know, just throwing somebody against a wall. All the Mikaelsons do it to some extent. You know, like Elijah with his whole mafia don routine. I was supposed to be practicing the technique that night at the vampire nightclub. I'd never been there before, but people starting calling me 'Katherine' as soon as I walked in. So I just went with it," She shrugged. "It kind of got out of control."

"Ya think? You threw a person out of a window."

"It was through a wall, actually. No windows in a vampire nightclub," she rolled her eyes at him. "Duh. And he was a vampire, not a person."

"So nobody died."

"Oh, he's dead, for sure. The way I threw him? Took his head clean off. Now that was something the Page Six guy didn't realize. He heard a snippet of a rumor when someone pointed me out as I left the club, and snapped a pic. He had no clue what was going on for real."

"And now we only mind killing humans, and not vampires? When did that happen?"

"No, it's not like that," Elena said. "This guy thought I was Katherine, and he was coming after her - me - in a major way. He had to go."

Damon smirked at her. "I have to say that I'm impressed. You are practically becoming me, Elena."

"Well, I've learned a lot of things in the past couple of months, Damon. To say that I was naive as a human . . . bit of an understatement."

"Jaded, street smart, knows where the best coffee is, and how to take a head off . . ." Damon shook his head. "Hate to burst your confidence bubble, but Katherine says you are a real target as her, you know. She has such an exquisite talent for pissing powerful people off. More will come after you."

"They did," Elena said, casually, licking a drop of coffee off her finger. "No worries. Took care of it." She leaned over the table, and whispered, "I am very, very strong, you know."

Damon felt a _frisson_ of both delight and terror go down his spine as he met her eyes. "How many?"

"Got jumped last night, took the heads off four vamps. Elijah is pretty sure that one of them was the boss of that group, the one Katherine screwed over a few years ago. I mean it was hard to tell after I decapitated him, though. Now that word has gone around, nobody is going to mess with me again. Or with Katherine, for that matter." Elena added, sitting back in her chair, and turning her face up towards the sun. "She should be thanking me."

"Oh, I'll be sure to tell her that. She will most certainly see things your way. Besides, it's not as though she hasn't been pretending to be you, back in Mystic Falls. Turnabout is fair play."

"She has?" Elena said, thoughtfully. She shrugged. "Hope she's having fun with that."

Damon briefly considered telling her his suspicions about Katherine having juju'ed Stefan, but dismissed the idea. Just because Elena seemed to be in total control at that moment, that didn't mean that he wanted the Starbucks awning pulled down over his head.

"You want to go for a walk in the park?" he suggested instead, standing, and holding a hand out to her.

Elena smiled up at him, and let him pull her up out of her chair. "Love to."


	14. Chapter 14

Strolling through Central Park on a spring day, eating mint chocolate chip ice cream and holding hands with his most favorite girl? This must be what heaven is like, Damon decided. Not that he would ever get to know how close the comparison was.

They sat on a rock across the lake from the Bow Bridge, and watched their fellow park goers enjoy the afternoon.

"I'll bet she tastes really good," Elena remarked, indicating a jogger going over the bridge. "I've noticed that fit people taste better."

"Really?" Damon said, wrinkling his nose. "Not in my experience. Give me a gal that likes her chocolate bon-bons any day."

Elena nudged him with her shoulder, and smiled, "Such a sweet tooth."

"So Elijah and your monkish friend are down with a catch and release program?"

"Mmm hmmm," Elena said, catching the ice cream dripping off her cone with her tongue. "You have to remember, they have been around a long time. Way before blood bags made things more convenient. Catch and release is the only way Bart really wants to feed - that's why he always lives in the cities. So much easier. And I've never actually seen Elijah feed, but he doesn't mind when I do."

"Well, you said your friend was a wrecking ball just like you, so I thought that might be his attraction to big cities . . . where so many buildings are on the verge of coming down anyway."

"Smasher." Elena balled up the paper wrapper from her cone and threw it at the nearest trash can, twenty yards away. "Two points. Nobody saw that did they?"

"Nah, you're good. Smasher what now?"

"Oh, Brother Bartholomew says that's the more common name for us. You know, like Stefan is a ripper? Once a smasher, always a smasher. Well, until you get staked for the common vampire good. Smashers and rippers have two things in common . . . they are very rare, and they don't tend to survive very long. They draw too much attention, so it's better for the vampires in a community to take them out before they become a problem. I'm just lucky," Elena shrugged, "that I'm me, I guess. Elijah already had a soft spot for me before I was turned."

"I guess you could call it that."

"Regular old smashers, you know, ones that don't have Original blood in them, aren't as big of a liability as someone like me and Bart. We're the Big Leagues, the only ones I know about, too. But we can be useful to have around. Elijah let us do the demolition work on a factory that needed to come down in Jersey last week. Nothing more satisfying than turning something into rubble. It's addictive. Oh, and you should watch Brother Bartholomew in action sometime. Poetry in motion. Nobody can take out a supporting column as fast as he can," she said, looking out over the lake.

"Well, it's good that you have somebody to share your hobby with."

Still looking at the water, Elena sighed. "This is my favorite spot in all of New York. Right here by the lake. I like to come here and think about drowning. Remember drowning, actually. Understandable, I guess, considering that I have done it twice. I think about it every day, dream about it every night."

"Morbid much, Elena?"

"Maybe a little. Comes with the territory, I think. Super strength, crazy moods. Wow, speaking of moody, just imagine if Stefan had been turned by Klaus instead of by Katherine - a ripper with Original blood in them would really be something special. There aren't any of those around anymore, Elijah made sure of that."

"Special?" Damon raised an eyebrow. "I suppose so, Especially horrific."

"Oh, yeah. It would be terrible. The skies would rain blood." Elena looked back at him. "You know, Elijah used to be known as the Butcher of Belgrade, back in the day. Rebekah has an even better nickname. In Prague, they called her the Bloody Duchess. Even Kol claims that he was known as the Kansas City Killer in the 1880s, but I don't believe him."

"Well, you can have a nickname, too. We can call you the Mystic Falls Massacre-er if you like."

"Totally not a word, Damon."

"It is if I say it is. That's the beautiful thing about language." He smiled down at her, and she smiled back. Elena leaned against him, and he put his arm around her. "Have I mentioned yet just how much I enjoy dark and crazy Elena, and all her moods?"

"Well, I'm glad somebody does." She was quiet for a second, and then added, "And I know what you are thinking, Damon."

"And what is that?"

"You are thinking, 'hey, Elena has it all under control, there's no reason why she can't come home now'."

He paused, and then asked, "And would I be wrong to think that?"

"Yes. Just because I'm like this today, doesn't mean I will be tomorrow. I have only a few good days here and there, Damon. And I don't want to burden you with the way I am most of the time. When I'm sad - when I think too much about all that I've lost - it's not good. It's not like this. My day was downright rotten until I spotted you across the street. You have no idea how much seeing you just lifted me up."

"You can't possibly think _you_ are a burden for me ever, Elena. I thought you knew better than that." He pulled her tighter against him. She sighed, and captured one of his hands in hers. Her fingers stroked his fingers, and then went still.

"You didn't have to come here in person."

"Well, it was either come, or be nagged to death by Katherine. It's not like you gave me your phone number."

"You could have used Jeremy's number to reach Elijah, and you could have asked him to deal with it."

"Oh, so we are acknowledging Jeremy's continued existence, now? And you say you haven't made major improvements."

"There's no _fixing_ me, Damon." She looked up at him. "Don't you dare start believing that I can be fixed."

"So? You can't be fixed. Big deal. You think that scares me?"

"It should. It scares me." She stood up, and reached a hand out to him. "C'mon. I want to show you something."

* * *

"We'll start here at the lake in Central Park. Right here is where Luiz Pazman died. I was trying to skip a stone across the lake, and it lodged in his brain. His six year old son saw him fall."

Damon remarked, "Well, _that_ could have happened to anyone. Honest mistake."

"No, don't talk." Elena took Damon by the hand, and they walked across the park to a spot in the path leading up to the Bow Bridge.

"Here is where I tore the throats out of two joggers just after dark. Michael Joffrey and Melissa Rich. Melissa was a pediatric nurse at St. Vincent's, and Michael was a third grade teacher at PS 102. I also took down both of those lamp posts, and injured three other people. I was recalling the look on Jeremy's face when he stood in the doorway of our house, refusing to let me in."

Keeping a tight hold on his hand, Elena led Damon out of the park, and to the corner of East 72nd and Madison.

"There were six people in that church when I tore half of it down one night last week, when I was reliving that moment in the Salvatore crypt, saying goodbye to Ric. Four of them were homeless guys that the pastor was allowing to sleep on the pews. The other two were the Pastor, Gerry Saunders, and the choir director, Leslie Moreland. I'm still working on finding out the names of the four homeless men."

She dragged him across the street.

"Sherry Little and her friend Martha Gabelmann. They got in my way when I was trying to rip down the corner of that bodega four weeks ago. Yes, the one that still has scaffolding all over it." She paused, "I was thinking about Stefan, and how he wasn't brave enough to love me anymore."

She moved him quickly along two more blocks, to Lexington Avenue.

"A guy bumped into me right here, and made me spill my coffee. Broad daylight, and I tore his heart out. Had to compel six bystanders and two paramedics into thinking he'd had cardiac arrest. His name was Lawrence Zbunga, and he had just arrived in New York the month before to work as a cabbie. I was in a bad mood that day, because Rebekah and I got into a fight at dinner the night before."

Two blocks down and then one block cross-town to 2nd Avenue.

"Lila Koch and her boyfriend, Justin Crayley, college students." Elena's voice caught in a sob, as she added, "They looked happy. They looked so happy that I couldn't stand it. So I snapped their necks." She pointed farther down the sidewalk. "Their friend Mira Rizzoti saw me do it, so I snapped her neck, too."

Damon untangled his hand from hers, and cradled her face. He wiped the tear from her cheek with his thumb. "Quite a tour. Elena's many mishaps."

"I should sell tickets," she said, with a sniffle. "Haven't even gotten to mid-town yet."

"Stop trying to scare me, little girl," Damon said, as he stroked her cheek. "It's not going to work."

"Damon," she pulled out of his grasp. "Why are you here?"

"I missed you."

"No," she shook her head. "No. You couldn't possibly. You couldn't possibly miss cleaning up after me. I left Mystic Falls, and you are _still_ cleaning up my mess. How many hours have you spent trying to rebuild the hospital I tore down? How many hours at the construction site of my old house? How many lies did it take to convince Liz Forbes and Carol Lockwood that it wasn't me that did those things, that your sweet Elena had never killed anyone, ever? Why would you miss me, _how_ could you miss all that?"

Damon sighed, and pulled her close to him, even though she tried to pull away again. He held her still, and kissed her on the forehead. He pulled back and met her dark, troubled gaze.

"I'd do all of it again. I'd build you a hundred new hospital wings, a hundred new houses and let you tear them all down a hundred times. Because I love you, Elena. And love is kind of crazy."

"You're kind of crazy," Elena whispered, looking at up him through half closed eyes.

Damon leaned in closer, and brushed her lips with his. He held her face in his hands.

"Yeah, I am."


	15. Chapter 15

AN: Y'all's enthusiasm for this fic is awesome! Thank you so much. Do I need to include warnings on chapters that get a bit dark? If so, then consider this one.

* * *

Damon was surprised by Elena's apartment. It was neat and tidy, with a notable absence of many breakables. It didn't reflect anything of Elena's personality, though. Stark white walls, shiny black leather furniture. Elena saw his reaction, and wrinkled her nose.

"I know," she said. "It used to belong to this guy that managed some of Elijah's real estate holdings. But he screwed something up, and Elijah compelled him to stake himself," she pointed at a rug on the floor. "Right there, actually."

Damon grimaced. "Lovely."

"Elijah has no tolerance for fools." She glanced over at him, and asked, "Are you hungry? I have loads of just about anything you can think of in the fridge. I've even got O neg."

"You're kidding." Damon walked to her tiny kitchen area, and opened the refrigerator. "You're not kidding. Elijah must have one hell of a supplier."

"Well," Elena said, as she reached around him, and snagged herself a bag. "That's an interesting thing, actually. You remember my idea about ordering blood from Amazon?"

"Uh, yeah?" Damon grabbed a bag of O negative.

"Elijah loved it. He's thinking about building it into a real business model. An internet supply site for vampires. Heavily disguised, of course." She stretched out onto the couch. "Hate this furniture. Too slippery. Anyway, he thinks I could actually do it someday. The fridge is full of samples I'm trying out."

Damon sat down beside her, and draped her legs over his lap. "You haven't even finished high school. No way you are running a dotcom."

"All of the best entrepreneurs dropped out of school, Damon." Elena's dark hair splayed out over the side of the couch as she lay back and sipped from her bag. "Can you imagine if I could get Bonnie to do daylight rings as part of the site? We'd make a gajillion dollars in Manhattan alone. There are so many vampires here."

"Zuckerberg ain't got nothing on you, babe. But honestly, that's the very last thing anyone needs, to set the world's entire vampire population loose during the day time."

"Oh, I know. It's a terrible, terrible idea," she sighed. "But so profitable."

Damon looked around, suddenly realizing something. "Why am I not hearing what is going on all over this building? There's an obvious reason why vampires normally prefer houses."

"Every apartment is soundproof - to a pretty good extent, anyway. Which much have been crazy expensive for Elijah. But you are right, what a nightmare it would be to have almost a hundred vampires living here otherwise."

"Just the fact that you are living in a building with that many vampires gives me the willies, Elena." Damon shook his head. "And what in the hell does Elijah's company do that so many work for him?"

"Real estate, mostly. He's been buying up Manhattan real estate ever since the New Amsterdam days, when he was known as Eli Van Mikael. And he's on the board of several charities, of course. He's in Asia right now, opening up a wildlife refuge, and making some sort of deal to buy an eco skyscraper - whatever that is. He travels a lot."

Elena held out her hand and looked at the way her ring with its blue stone, silver crest and tiny 'E' shone in the light. "I never thanked you for this. For thinking ahead like you did. You are a pretty smart guy, Damon. The only one that knew I would turn some day."

"Yes, Elena, I am." He lightly caressed her knee through the leg of her jeans. "So smart that you decided to run away from me, and shack up with the Mikaelsons."

"I ran away, as you call it, _because _of you. Because of how I . . . how I feel about you. Because I think too much of you to make you deal with the rollercoaster that is my life now. You know that." she sat up and met his eyes. "And I wanted you to have Stefan back. It wasn't fair to you that he left."

"Not fair, no."

"And now he's back, and you are brothers again, and all's well in Mystic Falls."

"You'd think so, huh?" Damon said.

"Everything is good, right?" Elena asked, with a slight frown.

"Of course, Elena," Damon responded, and smiled. "Just like you said. Stefan is back and all's well in Mystic Falls."

* * *

Her bedroom looked more like her than the rest of the apartment. Damon cursed himself for not remembering to bring her teddy bear with him, though. Her bed was bare without it. But there was a painting of a horse hanging over her bed, and she had a picture on the wall of herself hugging a small, chubby man with a tonsure. The walls were a pale green, and there were white lace curtains on the windows. Nothing anywhere that could remind her of Mystic Falls, though.

A formal portrait photograph of the Mikaelson family sat on a shelf in a corner where she wouldn't have to stare at it from her bed. Picking it up, Damon shuddered slightly when he looked at it - a stern, unsmiling Elijah, an elfin Kol, a very pouty Klaus, Rebekah doing something vaguely duck-like with her lips. And a sad faced Elena standing slightly to one side.

"This is super fucking creepy," Damon said, indicating the photo. "How did they talk you into it?"

Elena shrugged. "There are privileges that go along with being a Mikaelson. And then there's the other stuff."

"Yeah, but _you _are not a Mikaelson. You seem to be forgetting that."

"This version of me is." She saw the expression on his face, and sighed. "Okay, I knew you wouldn't really understand. But you know that technique I mentioned . . . that way of creating a sense of detachment. It's just easier to be Elena Mikaleson when I'm here. As far as anyone knows, I've been stored away in a box for decades, just like Rebekah or Kol. I have no past, no entanglements. Elena Mikaelson doesn't have to care about anything. Or anyone. And up until the nightclub incident, nobody bothered me. That first week after I moved into the building, Elijah threw a party for the other people that live here and made it quite clear that I was under the family protection. It just makes things easier."

She held up her hand again. "Actually, my day ring might have convinced people I was a Mikaelson, anyway. You have no idea how much just walking in the sun sets the family apart from other vampires. So much jealousy and speculation."

"Weird how so few vampires have discovered the daylight ring secret. Oh, the luck of knowing Bennett witches."

"I know, right? I asked Bonnie about that once, when I wanted her to make a ring for Rose. She thinks that a lot of witches are aware of the spell, but are just very careful to not let vampires know it exists. Makes me wonder how many of us there actually are. The Mystic Falls vamps, all of the Mikaelsons, of course, and Brother Bartholomew . . . I wonder if that's all? Maybe I'll ask Bart if he knows. He's big into vampire history and lore." The phone in her pocket started to vibrate.

"Speaking of . . . here's Bart now." She made an apologetic face at Damon before answering, "Hey, sweetpea, how's Schenectady?" Elena carried her phone out of her bedroom into the living room. "Oh, I know. I'm feeling better, don't worry. Seriously, it's all good, cross my heart. No fatalities in nearly twenty four hours. Every building on the block still standing. Oh, and I remembered to feed your cat, too."

Elena closed the door behind her as she left, not that it made a difference. Damon could still hear her, of course. He told himself that he was happy that she had such a good friend looking out for her. Although, what kind of friend let her wander the streets of Manhattan alone snapping college kids' necks, ripping out a cabbie's heart . . . Damon shook his head. She shouldn't be here. He wanted her to come home.

He crossed the small room, and looked through the books on her shelves. He recognized the letter he had sent her, the one about Clementine Forthbridge's beauteous freckles, folded carefully, and stuck between the pages of a Complete Works of Shakespeare. He could think of worse places for his letter to have ended up.

Damon started to open the door to her closet, but then paused. He could still hear her on the phone, saying that she was fully stocked on herbs, and that she was planning on staying in and doing some yoga and meditating that evening. Interesting that she didn't tell her friend that Damon was there. She mentioned a Carlos, and Damon wondered if this was a new person to be jealous of. "No problem, Carlos will know how to take care of it." Damon wanted to be the one who knew. The one who would 'take care of it', whatever 'it' was.

He opened the closet door completely, and stopped still. Names, ages, places.

Damon touched the first name on the wall with his finger. Aimee Tipton, age 12, Safeway parking lot. The next name . . Jeremy Gilbert*, age 17, Gilbert front porch. At least she had included the asterisk. And then came the victims from the night of the hospital massacre. Names he was so very familiar with from the memorial wall he helped to design for the new lobby. Those four little names at the beginning. Charlotte Marie Watersmith, age 2 days. Ainsley Grace Berg, age 1 day, 4 hours. Madeleine Abigail Lester, age 6 hours. Matthew Josiah Merridew, age 1 hour. Elena had done her research well.

She had carved the names into the wall with a steady hand, he noted. Damon couldn't count how many names there were in total.

"Fifty seven," Elena said, quietly from the doorway. "Counting the four homeless guys from last week, and the four vampires from last night. When Elijah gets back from Manila, he will find out the names for me and I will add them."

"You learned this from Stefan."

"A smasher's closet should probably list the buildings they have taken down, not the people. I might do that on a different wall."

"You're missing three. There are three names missing from the people at the hospital."

"Because those three were Stefan's." She looked at him, steadily. "I told you that I made him do bad things."

Damon winced. Of course, no wonder Stefan had left and stayed gone so long.

"Elijah should be protecting you from this," Damon said, angrily. "Why are you here alone?"

Elena sat on the bed, with a sigh. "It's not his job to protect me, Damon. It's nobody's job. I have to learn to live with this . . . nobody can do it for me. And I can't do it locked up in a house. Elijah wants me to be independent, not some kind of pet psychopath in a cage. We have a system in place to make sure it doesn't get too out of hand." She held up her phone. "Panic button app. It lets Carlos know. It's my fail safe."

"So that's what I was doing wrong," Damon said. "I was keeping you under lock and key with a watchdog all the time, and that's why you left me." He turned and looked at the names on the closet wall. "Some system. If you had stayed with me, more than half of these people would still be alive."

"You think I don't know that? You think I don't think about that every day?"

"Then come the fuck _home_, Elena," Damon faced her again. "I won't lock you up. You can roam the streets, tear down buildings, whatever it takes for you learn whatever you need to learn until this stops happening."

Elena stood, and walked into the closet with him, and traced the name 'Aimee Tipton' with one finger. "I used to babysit her when she was eight. I didn't even recognize her in the parking lot that night. Our mothers took a cooking class together in the evenings, and I would babysit Aimee while they were gone. You see why I can't be in Mystic Falls, anymore?" Her voice broke, as she continued, "We used to watch _America's Funniest Home Videos _together on the couch, and I would paint her toenails different colors. She loved the color orange, and I would buy orange nail polish just for her. But she always wanted her big toes painted pink. I'd make her pancakes for dinner, and she would put strawberry jam on the top. She was funny and she was sweet and I used to hope that I'd have a kid just like her some day."

She took her finger off the wall. "At least here in New York, I'm not slaughtering people I know. People I care about. It doesn't make it better, it doesn't make it right, whether they are strangers or not . . . but I just _can't _come back. I can't be the thing in the night that the children of Mystic Falls fear."

Damon turned away again. He couldn't look at the closet wall anymore.

"Who is Carlos?' he asked, shortly.

"Carlos is Elijah's driver and assistant. He's very old, and very strong, and Elijah pays him a lot of money to take care of things when . . . when they go wrong."

"He doesn't keep you from killing, he just cleans up the bodies and compels the witnesses when you are done."

"Pretty much."

"This is fucked up, Elena."

"I know." She sat down on her bed again. "I know it is. I told you it wasn't all ice cream and walks in the park, Damon."

He sat down beside her, and grabbed her hand. "I'm not sorry that you are a vampire. It's selfish of me, but I'm not. I _like_ you as a vampire. The darker and crazier, the better. It makes us equal this way. But I am sorry that it wasn't my blood in your system the night Rebekah killed you. It should have been mine."

"Yes," Elena said, as she looked down at their entwined hands. "I wish it had been, too."

They sat in silence until Damon said, "If you won't come home, then I will stay here."

"You can't. You have so much on your plate as it is, Damon. Don't forget that I've talked to Caroline."

"It doesn't matter," Damon insisted. "I can sweep the plate clean, just like that. None of it matters to me."

"Damon, no," Elena said, bringing her hands up to cradle his face. "You belong in Mystic Falls, now. You belong _to_ Mystic Falls. They all depend on you, now. And you don't know how much it means to me that you are there, in the town I love, with the people I love. I can't be there, and I can't take care of them anymore. But you do. You do it every day."

"Yeah, I am so goddamn indispensable," Damon bit back a laugh. "Everybody needs me, except the one person that _I_ need."

"I can't . . . Damon, I can't _be_ needed. Not by anyone, not by you. Not like I am." Elena bit her lip, and took a deep breath.

Damon said, quietly, covering her hands with his, "You can. You just have to want to."

Elena dropped her hands from his face.

"Thank you for coming, Damon." She gave him a small smile, but didn't meet his eyes. "It was good to see you."

"Don't just dismiss me, Elena. Not like this." Damon stood, clenching a fist at his side.

"You have to go, Damon. I'm sorry, but you do."

Damon stood there, staring at her for a second, and then nodded. "Okay. I'm leaving. Doesn't mean anything though, Elena. Don't mistake acceptance for agreement."

He had turned the doorknob, and was about to leave her room, when Elena said, in a very small voice, "Damon, please . . . will you write me another letter?"

Without turning around, Damon sighed, and answered, "Yes, Elena. Of course I will."

He left her there, alone in her room, alone in New York, alone with her closet full of names. So many names that soon there wouldn't be room for any more. How many closets could she fill with names in a year, in a decade? In a century? Good thing she was a Mikaelson now, and Elijah could buy her a whole city's block worth of closets.

He left her there, because what else was he supposed to do? He had a hospital planning meeting in the morning, and he had to be there to help decide how many parking spots the new parking structure was going to provide. Damon believed that they should plan for sixty, but Gwen Fell thought they would only need fifty-five. It was sure to be a heated and intellectually stimulating debate. He wouldn't miss it for the world.


	16. Chapter 16

They decided on sixty-eight parking spots, that way nobody was happy. Damon was wrapping up the meeting when he got an urgent text from Carol Lockwood. The recall vote was slated for the next day. He called her as soon as he reached his Camaro.

"And what does that mean exactly?"

"Well, the town selectmen will vote in chambers first thing tomorrow morning. They are the only ones with the authority to recall a Mayor."

Damon sighed. "Half of the town selectmen are Fells. Or married to them."

"More than half," Carol said. "So it's pretty much over for me. And that means you need to swing by my office and pick up the paperwork for your special elections candidacy. You have to get a jump on Klaus, Damon. Things will move very quickly. The charter says a new mayor has to be put in place in the same calendar month in which the former mayor leaves office."

"I don't want this, Carol," Damon said, rubbing his forehead. "I don't want this at all."

"But you will do it, right, Damon? If Klaus becomes mayor . . . I don't know how we are going to be able to protect Tyler and Caroline any longer. You know they aren't his favorite people right now."

"Oh, I know. I heard." Damon had the whole story from Rebekah, how Klaus left two tickets to Paris on Caroline's bed as a peace offering, intending to take her there. She whisked Tyler off for a romantic long weekend instead. She sent Klaus a postcard of the Eiffel Tower, and apparently, he wasn't taking it well. Damon was just impressed that she and Tyler managed to compel themselves passports on such short notice. "I honestly don't think Klaus is going to be able to sustain interest in this idea long enough to cause major trouble. But he is a spiteful and unpredictable bastard, so . . . I'll be at your office in five minutes."

"Thank you, Damon," Carol sighed in relief. "I knew we could count on you."

"Of course, Carol," Damon said. "Always."

* * *

After filling out the relevant forms and having them notarized, Damon drove over to Bonnie's house. School was out, and Bonnie was home - and he noticed Abby's car in the driveway as well.

"My two favorite witchy type people," he said, greeting them when they opened the door. "Not that I have a long list of witchy type people that I like. So, you know, it's not hard to be my favorites."

"Damon," Bonnie said. "I suppose you can come in."

They sat in the living room, Abby pointedly not making eye contact with Damon.

"Still?" Damon asked, looking at Bonnie. "Still?"

"Not exactly something you get over in less than a decade, Damon," Bonnie said, drily. "Anyway, it's good that you are here, because I was going to call you. The witch spirits are not happy with Sylvia Martin and her great-niece, Keely."

"Aha! I knew it. So what did they do? Juju, right? Dark, nasty juju?"

"And lots of it. It sounds like Keely Martin has been working dark magic for years. The dead witches have a long list of grievances against her."

"And Stefan's particular issue? How do we fix him, and get that she-devil out of his life?"

"Yeah . . . that's a problem. I mean, we have confirmed the likelihood of Stefan being under some kind of spell, but that's long way from knowing what the spell is, or how to undo it. I don't even know where to begin. My knowledge of dark magic is really limited."

"The grimoires that we have access to say nothing about this kind of spell," Abby added, quietly.

"Well, that sucks," Damon said with a sigh. "What if I just stake Katherine? Wouldn't that solve the problem?"

Bonnie looked at her mother. "It might. Or it might trigger a chain reaction that results in Stefan's death as well. Depends on how she has bound him to her. We'd have to find out from Keely Martin, first."

"That's not likely to happen. Lovely." Damon buried his head in his hands. "I'd like good news today. Just a little bit of good news. Just something that I can work with here."

"Well, it's not good news, exactly, but the witch spirits did say something else."

"What?" Damon raised his head.

"Just one word. 'Mercury'. That's all, but they were insistent about it being connected to Katherine."

"Mercury? The car, the metal, the god, the planet, Freddie? For fuck's sake."

"I don't know. Just the one word."

"Well, fantastic." Damon stood up, and said, "I'll just build a rocket ship and send Stefan to another planet. In fact, I think I'll join him there. Even if that doesn't solve this problem, it'll probably solve a whole host of others."

* * *

Damon returned home, to find his brother sitting in the living room and staring into the fire.

"Bit warm for a fire, isn't it?"

"We're vampires. Does it matter?" Stefan replied, not turning around.

"True." Damon made himself a drink and joined Stefan. "Saw Elena, you know."

"Really? Is she back?"

"No, Stef," Damon said, with a sigh. "She's not back. I would think even you would notice if she had come back."

"Oh. Where did you see her?"

"Went to New York. She's in a creepy apartment in a creepy vampire building and living like she's one of the creepy Mikaelsons. There's a whole lot of creepy going on." Damon swirled the ice around in his glass. "I think she should come home, but I haven't been able to convince her of that."

Stefan looked over at him. "I don't think it would make Katherine very happy for Elena to come back here."

"Hmm . . . let me see, do I give a fuck about what makes Katherine happy? Oh, wait- I don't."

"I do," Stefan replied.

"Oh yes, very aware of that. More to the point, Stefan, how would _you _feel if I could convince Elena to come home? Would you stay, or would it send you packing again?"

Stefan didn't appear to hear him.

"Stef?" Damon nudged him with his elbow.

"If Katherine wants to stay here, then we will probably stay." Stefan shrugged. "I'm okay either way."

"Really? You have no opinion at all about your former girlfriend moving in here with your current one?"

"We all need to learn to live together, eventually, anyway. I wish you would try harder to get along with Katherine. This is forever, you know, Damon."

"Yes, Stefan, I know. That fact has been drilled into my skull. Forever."

"By the way, Caroline came over while you were out. She wants to know if you need a campaign manager."

"That girl is looney tunes," Damon said, shaking his head. "The only reason why I have to run for mayor is because the town elders know that she and her boyfriend are vampires. Having her attached to my campaign is a sure fire way to lose."

"Given everything, the idea of you as mayor of Mystic Falls is a very strange one, Damon. But our father would be proud of you, you know."

Damon snorted. "Doubtful. He'd just criticize the way I run a meeting. _'Rosenberg's Rules of Order? Salvatores only use Robert's Rules of Parliamentary Procedure! You disappoint me, son!_'."

Stefan smiled. "Well, anyway, let us know if there's anything Katherine and I can do to help. Looking forward to seeing you take office."

"Don't count your mayoral chickens before they hatch, Stef. This time next month, we might all be singing 'hail, Mayor Klaus, our less-than-benevolent overlord hath come'." Damon finished his drink and rose, adding, "And thank you for the offer, but I think Katherine has already done enough to make my life just dandy."

* * *

Damon was on the phone with Wilber Fell, trying one last time to talk him out of moving forward with the next day's recall vote, when he realized another call was coming through. Unlisted number. He asked Wilber to please re-consider this attack on Mayor Lockwood, and then switched over. For a second he thought he had made a mistake, because he heard nothing but static, and a low keening noise.

"Hello? Hello?"

"Damon?" he heard, very faint.

"Elena?"

The keening noise resolved into the familiar sound of Elena's sobs.

"Elena, honey, you need to calm down. Deep breaths, Elena, deep breaths."

"You - you thought it was funny, Damon. You thought that _I _would think it was . . ."

"Slow down, Elena, I can't understand you. Are you okay? Is there anyone with you?"

He heard nothing but her breathing on the line, as it began to slow and become more regular.

"Your letter, Damon," Elena said, faint but careful. "Two people died, and you thought it was _funny_."

Damon's mind raced as he tried to remember what he wrote in his last letter. The DUI. The bumpity bump in the roadity road.

"Perry Lassiter and that girl," he said, finally.

"Yes," Elena replied in a shaky voice. "The car accident. _A car accident._ You went out there that night and played a . . . a game, Damon. You played a game and two people _died_. In the same spot where you and I first met. This is not okay. It's not _okay_."

"Elena, I -" Damon said, helplessly.

"That girl. Say her name, Damon. A girl died because of you. You should know her name."

"I'm sorry, but I don't," he responded. "I don't remember."

"You need to remember. This can't be you anymore, Damon. This shouldn't _be_ you."

Damon felt himself getting irritated, "So only you are allowed to make mistakes, Elena? I've seen your wall of mishaps. Why the hell are you judging me? How is this different from Harry Lockwood?"

"Because that was a century away, and not just weeks ago. Now you have no excuse. You are supposed to protect that town, Damon. That's who you are now."

"Who I am? I'm still a vampire, Elena!" Damon said, with a growl. "I may not have fancy Big League blood in my system, but I am still the same kind of monster that you are. Stop putting expectations on me. I'm no better than you. And _I like to kill_."

"You have to be better than me, Damon," Elena said, with a sob. "You have to be."

The static began to increase, and her sobs became fainter. Damon heard a large crashing noise, and then silence.

"Elena? Elena?" he was holding the phone so tight in his hand that he nearly crushed it. "Goddamnit."

Damon lifted up his head and roared, "Jeremy!"

From the direction of the Playstation room, he could hear Jeremy say, "Yeah?"

"Get out here now, boy, and bring that card with Elijah's number on it."

* * *

It took him three tries to get through to Elijah.

"Yes, Damon?"

"It's Elena," Damon said, pacing around the living room. "You need to send someone to check on Elena, _now_."

"And why is that?"

"She called me, she's upset, you should check on her. What part of this are you not understanding?"

"Damon, we have a system in place. If Elena is feeling overwhelmed, she only has to alert the proper people."

"Yeah, I've seen the results of your system. A whole closet wall full of results. Your system _sucks_."

There was a pause, and then Elijah said, "You visited her in New York."

"Yes, Elijah, for fuck's sake. Why are we still talking? Go and check on her. Or get Carlos to do it."

"Just one second." There was silence as Damon was put on hold, and then Elijah came back. "I am still in Asia, but I have asked Carlos to look in on her."

"Thank you," Damon said, relieved.

"But Damon, we all have a wall like that, even if it's only metaphorical. You cannot hold Elena to a different standard than the rest of us."

Damon laughed in disbelief. "_I_ can't hold _her _to a different standard? This is _Elena_. You need to remember what that means, Elijah. She _is_ different. Because we both know she won't turn it off. She will carry every one of those fifty seven names with her every day, every day for her fucking eternity, and all the time that she spends living under your precious system, that list grows longer. The list grows heavier. She _carries_ them. Do you bother carrying the names of your victims? For all your supposed morality, Elijah, do you? Can you name the last hundred? I can't even name the last ten of mine. But Elena will be able to name them all, even if her number grows to a hundred thousand. She will never forget, because she is _Elena_." Damon took a deep breath, "So you need to get a better fucking system."

* * *

Damon continued to pace the living room after getting off the phone with Elijah. Anything could be happening in New York. There might not even be a New York anymore if his favorite wrecking ball really let herself loose.

"Montana," he murmured to himself. "Screw the Berkshires. Montana, or Wyoming, or somewhere else. Mongolia. Hell, we're vampires with daylight rings. The Sahara would even work."

Matt poked his head into the living room. "Is it safe yet?"

"What?"

"Um . . . sorry, I just left my US History book in here, and you look kind of stressed, so -"

"Fine, Matt. Whatever. Come in." Damon snagged the decanter and sat down on the couch. He didn't bother with a glass.

"Is Elena in some kind of trouble?"

Damon looked up at him, and laughed. "Elena _is _the trouble. Always."

"Well, if there's anything I can do to help . . ."

Damon started to shake his head, but then thought for a second. "Actually, Matt, there is something you and Jeremy could do. Not for Elena, but you could keep an eye on Katherine for me. You don't have to do anything dangerous, just let me know if you see her doing anything odd, or meeting with anyone. Maybe if you overhear her on the phone or something like that."

Matt looked around. "Can she hear us right now?"

"No, she and Stefan went out. So you understand?"

"Well, actually, I can't spy on Katherine."

"What? Why not?

"Because she wouldn't like it." Matt grabbed his book from the side table, and then headed for the doorway. "But if you think of anything else I can do, let me know."

"Wait - Matt?"

"Yeah?"

"Are you still on vervain?" Damon's eyes narrowed.

"Um, yeah, of course I am."

"Are you sure?"

Matt cocked his head. "I think so. I take it everyday."

Damon stood up and walked over to Matt. He leaned in close. Using compulsion, he said, "Matt, I want you to tell me everything that Katherine has asked you to do for her this past week."

"She asked me to get her fresh towels this morning," Matt replied. "She asked me for a bag of B positive yesterday, but we didn't have any. I gave her AB pos instead, and she threw it at me. On Saturday, she asked me to run out and get her a frappucino. At the Grill on Friday, she asked me to bring her a new fork because she dropped hers. I cannot tell you what she asked me to do on any day before that."

"You can't? Why not."

Matt looked befuddled. "I don't know."

Damon took a step back. "Oh, this day just keeps getting better. Okay, Matt, listen up. I want you to forget that we had this conversation. If Katherine asks you what you and I talked about, you tell her that all I said to you today was 'great game this weekend, son' and that I wished you good luck on your History test. Okay? Oh, and maybe that I yelled at you for not vacuuming the living room."

"Yes," Matt replied.

"All right, that's it. You can go."

Matt took a step back, and stumbled a bit. "Whoah. Don't know why I'm so unsteady. See ya. Have to go study."

Damon smiled at him, "Good luck on your history test."

"Okay, thanks- wait, didn't you already say that?"

"Well, you know, you can never have too much luck." Damon patted Matt on the back, and then shoved him back towards the Playstation room.

His phone rang. Unlisted.

"Elena?"

"It's Elijah, Damon."

"Oh," Damon crossed into the living room and sat down on the couch. "And?"

"And I wanted to thank you for alerting us to Elena's emotional state. She couldn't push the panic button on her phone, because she had crushed the phone in her hand."

"Is everything okay?"

"Everything is fine. No new names for the wall, Damon. When Carlos reached her, the only damage done was to her own apartment. And to a gentleman on the sidewalk outside the building who was hit in the head when her couch came through the wall and knocked out the fire escape. But he will definitely survive. I'll be sending Elena to my place in the country for a few weeks until her apartment can be repaired and refurnished. And," Elijah added, "until we can revise the way we handle these episodes. I agree with you, Damon. Elena is a special case, and we need to adjust."

"Hallefreakinlujah," Damon breathed. "She really did hate that furniture."


	17. Chapter 17

AN: So glad you have stuck with me and my poor, beleaguered Damon this far. Y'all are seriously troupers, and I appreciate each and every one of you.

* * *

Mercury, and Katherine's possible connection to it, dominated Damon's thoughts the next few days. There was _something_ niggling at the back of his brain about it. The answer was right _there,_ he just couldn't get at it. He had a suspicion that Jeremy might be the key, so he snagged him one morning before school, and dragged him off to the nearly completed Gilbert house. Damon needed to check on its progress anyway, and he wanted the privacy of no vampires in the vicinity.

"Wow," Jeremy said, as they stepped inside the empty house. "It's kind of freaky how exactly like our old house this is." Jeremy suddenly got quiet as he stood in the same spot where he'd denied Elena from entering not so very long before. He turned, and looked behind himself through the door to the porch.

"Don't you dare get maudlin on me, kid. Okay, I just need to check some stuff, and then we can get started."

They walked upstairs, where Damon looked inside every room, opened every closet door, checked every sink and every toilet, and then finally poked his head into Elena's bedroom. "Perfect. I can almost see your sister in here, rolling her eyes at me and saying '_Seriously, Damon, Seriously?' _I did make one change, though. I added a wider ledge outside her window. That last leap inside was always a tricky one."

"You really think she's ever going to live here again? Because I don't."

"It's symbolism, young Gilbert."

"It's what?"

"Do they teach you children nothing in school these days? Your sister tore her house down, the house of her childhood, the very night that she made her transition into a brave new adulthood. Get it? The house symbolized her former life. It had to come down."

"Yeah, I don't think symbolism was on her mind when she was ripping the roof off and smashing my car with it. Didn't look like it to me, anyway. Besides, if the house _had _to come down for Elena to grow up, then why did you rebuild it?"

Damon patted him on the back, and urged him back downstairs. "Symbolism, Jeremy. That's all. You'll figure it out someday."

They went into the living room, and Damon sat on the windowsill. "I can't decide just how far I need to go with this. Do we repaint every room exactly like it was? Replace every last stick of furniture? Go hunting in thrift shops to find the exact same dishes and afghans that dear old Mom picked out?"

"Doesn't matter to me what you do. I'm never going to live here again."

Damon looked at him, and asked, "It was that bad, huh?"

"My sister ripped out my throat. She killed me. It was kind of traumatic, you know."

"Such a crybaby. You act like nobody has ever killed you before." Damon clapped his hands together, "All right then, let's get started. Summon our friend."

Jeremy pointed to the corner. "He's already here. Hi, Ric."

Damon glanced over. "Fantastic. So, here's the deal, guys."

* * *

Damon received another letter from Elena a few days after he had last spoken to Elijah. The envelope was postmarked Lenox, MA.

_I'm just an ordinary girl. Just like everyone else, just like I always was. Some days I forget that I died and then came back wrong. I forget all about eternity. Who I've lost. Who I've wronged. And I worry about what to wear, what to say, who I am, who to love like any teenage girl. 'No more dreaming like a girl so in love with the wrong world.' See? Just like any teenage girl, I'm copying down the lyrics to songs all the time. I'm so obsessed with drowning that I've become obsessed with singers who are also obsessed with drowning. If I was still in school, I would be one of those kids who dresses in black and says scary things all the time, even when you just ask them how they are doing. "everyone around me is going to die someday so what does how I'm doing matter anyway?" And all of the other kids would hate me, and Caroline would roll her eyes at me every time she passes me in the hallway. Maybe it's a good thing I'm not in school anymore. _

_There are waterfalls here that remind me of home. I sit under them and pretend to drown all over again. I'm going to dig a very deep hole in the bottom of a lake under the falls, and I'm going to try very hard to bury myself inside. It's hard because I keep floating. Why do I float? With all of the death weighing me down it feels like I should be far too heavy to ever float again. But I throw myself into the water, and I float every time._

_Tell me that girl's name._

There was a return address included, so he wrote back.

_Ashley Hoek. 19 years old. She was a student at the community college, taking communications classes. Her parents were divorced. She had a ten year old sister named Gabrielle. She was drunk and she was angry when she died. Her mother buried her next to her grandmother in the Towsley Memorial Gardens. They installed the guardrail this morning, and I had them engrave the names Perry Lassiter and Ashley Hoek on it._

_I won't forget again. _

_Please come home. -D_

Two days later, he received a text on his phone.

_Tell me all their names._

Well, that was going to be a real project.

* * *

Meanwhile, the process to elect a new mayor was marching on. The recall vote went as expected, and Carol honestly seemed relieved by the result. She told Damon that it took somebody superhuman to run Mystic Falls, and she simply wasn't. But luckily, he was.

So Damon filed the requisite paperwork, and then held his breath as he waited to see what Klaus would do. Klaus filed his paperwork, too. The day after Klaus filed, Damon's campaign got a check in the mail for $50,000 from Elijah Mikaelson. He sent it back. No reason to cause any extra turmoil in that family. They were expert enough at creating their own drama.

The election was scheduled for May 24th. Caroline moaned that it wasn't fair, that this election was going to distract from prom preparations, because the prom was happening on May 25th. But Damon knew that she was really just frustrated because nobody was letting her officially work on a campaign that had defeating Klaus as its main goal.

Clearly, Caroline Forbes was _born_ for politics, especially the dirty kind. So Damon consulted her in secret, and let her be his official unofficial strategist. It was her brilliant idea to start a whispering campaign to rile the local populace against Klaus's 'foreigness'. When Damon questioned her, she rolled her eyes and said, "Xenophobia, Damon. It's real, look it up on Wikipedia."

Caroline started the whispers at the hair salon where Gwen Fell and Betty Jo Fell and all the minor lady Fells had their hair done each Saturday. Just a casual word dropped in a casual ear, that Klaus had some pretty strange 'European' ideas, and wasn't it Europe where people were having all that trouble with socialism these days? Caroline quite helpfully pulled up pictures of the rioting in Greece on her phone to show Betty Jo and the stylist, who both gasped appropriately. Taxes were really high in Europe, too, wasn't that dreadful? Oh, sure, that accent was gorgeous, but _all_ European socialists had that same accent. And what was up with that facial hair? So much like Lenin. Or was it Marx? They had facial hair, too. Socialist facial hair.

"It's in the bag, Damon," Caroline told him airily, when she returned from the salon with new highlights. "Totally in the bag."

Damon didn't quite share her confidence, but he was certainly glad she was on his side.

Rebekah, however, was a lot less enthusiastic. "Politics, so dull," she complained one night in bed, as he ignored her in favor of going over fundraising spreadsheets. "You and Klaus have both become boring."

"But you are still voting for me, right, my bedtime bunny friend?" Damon put the spreadsheets to the side, pulled Rebekah close, and began a tender assault on her neck.

She arched against him, saying, "Not eighteen yet, remember?"

"Oh, yeah," Damon said, as he paused in the act of biting her earlobe. "Hmmm . . . that makes what I am about to do _very_ illegal. In both this state and, I think, also Georgia and most of Tennessee."

"Just the way I like it," Rebekah said.

* * *

"You have to stop sleeping with Rebekah," Caroline told him during their daily strategy call.

"What? Why?"

"Well, aside from sanitary reasons, because _ew_, did it also not occur to you that Klaus could use this against you? This campaign is _over _if the townsfolk find out you are fooling around with a high school girl."

Damon sighed. "And she's not even the high school girl I most want to fool around with."

"Don't want to hear it, Damon."

"Okay, fine, I can end it. However, this is _Rebekah _we are talking about. She's a Mikaelson, which automatically means vindictive and creative. Do you remember the last time we stopped indulging in carnal pleasures? I do not want to be strung up in a bear trap again, Caroline. Not my idea of sexy good times, or any kind of good times."

"I'll think of something, no worries," Caroline promised.

And Caroline was as good as her word, because it was that very night that Rebekah called him and said she wasn't going to be coming over anymore.

"What? Why?" Damon asked, for the second time that day.

Rebekah didn't say anything.

"I'm just not," she answered, finally.

"Okay," Damon said. "Well, as long as you have a good reason."

It remained a mystery until Caroline filled him in the following morning. "She ended it? Good. That means Matt must have asked her to prom."

"Wait, what?"

"Matt . . . I told him to ask Rebekah to prom. He was amazingly compliant. I thought for sure he'd put up at least a token amount of resistance. I knew that if she thought she was finally making progress with Matt, she would end things with you. You can't expect the guy you like to be okay with you fornicating with the guy he lives with. That's just wrong. And gross."

Damon groaned. "Wait, you told Matt to ask her? And he just did it?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Are you sure you didn't_ compel _him to ask her?"

"What? Of course not . . . oh, wait. Oh, no. I think I _did._ Is he off vervain?"

"Katherine managed to get him off of it somehow. I have no idea how long ago. He's even been compelled to believe that he is still taking it every day."

"Damon! Why did you let this happen?"

"I didn't _let_ it happen. It just happened. And I can't have Katherine knowing that I'm onto her, so I have to continue letting it happen."

"This is so not good, Damon. You are supposed to be looking out for him. Poor Matt, always being tormented by women."

"Well, he needs to join the club."

"Oh, boo frickin' hoo, Damon. You have to fix this."

"I'll add it to my ever increasing list, Caroline. You know, right up there with saving my brother from the she-devil, bringing Elena home where she belongs, and oh, yeah . . . winning a hotly contested mayoral campaign."

"Don't forget opening the new wing of the hospital, Damon. You have a speech to give at the opening gala in two days. It's going to be great exposure for the campaign."

"Yes, Caroline. Getting right on that, Caroline."

"Should be a lot easier to accomplish everything now that you aren't distracted by your blonde booty call."

"Oh, yeah," Damon agreed, sarcastically. "So much easier. Thank you ever so much for taking the hot sex burden off my shoulders."

"Well, she'd better not have been on your shoulders. That's just _ew_."

* * *

In the midst of all the political shenanigans, Damon had still not forgotten that his brother was under some kind of juju curse. And he did have a plan. It wasn't the best plan he had ever come up with in the entire span of his existence, but it made him feel better to at least have one.

"So, Katherine," Damon said to her casually over their morning coffee. "You never did tell me your part of the truce you made with Klaus."

"I told you, I offered him my assistance."

"With what exactly?"

"With finding the silver stake, of course, Damon. Your little mayoral race aside, the stake is what Klaus cares most about right now."

"Yes, and I can see that you have been ever so busy keeping up your end of that bargain. From your position on Stefan's lap."

"Oh, not me _directly _right at this exact moment_._ But Klaus knows that I have friends everywhere. I promised to do my part."

"Speaking of your friends, Bonnie made a suggestion yesterday that you might be interested in." Damon hadn't spoken to Bonnie in days, but Katherine did not need to know that.

"And what was that?" Katherine asked, from from where she was sitting on Stefan. He was holding her coffee cup for her, bringing it up to her lips whenever she nodded. Damon shuddered with revulsion over this little ritual every morning.

"She wants to know if your friend Sylvia Martin would be interested in digitizing all of the grimoires in the Bennett collection."

"Oh? You mean the ones Bonnie stole from Sylvia's relations?"

"Yep, those are the ones. Too many to ship to Chicago, of course, so if your friend is interested, she would have to come to Mystic Falls."

Katherine narrowed her eyes. "Oh, she would?"

"Yes, and Bonnie said she would love to meet that witchy great-niece you mentioned, too. You know, so they can have a little chat, witch to witch. They can even stay here, if you like. We have plenty of room, and friends of yours are always welcome."

"Hmm. Interesting proposition, Damon. So gracious." Katherine stretched, and rose from Stefan's lap. "I'll think it over. Coming, Stefan?"

Stefan nodded, and got up to follow her.

"By the way, Katherine - don't get any clever ideas about attending the hospital gala tomorrow night. Elena has gone back to prep school, remember?"

"Wouldn't dream of it, Damon. It's your night to shine, after all. And if I show up, well, then the spotlight wouldn't be all on you, would it?"

"Oh, vanity, thy name is woman."

"I don't think we want to start comparing vanity around here, Damon." She gave him an arch look, and then swept from the room, Stefan bobbing along in her wake.

Well, that was one thing crossed off his list for the day. 'Create suspicion in Katherine'. Check.

The next item, write speech for opening gala was also easily accomplished. Check. Send approval to the campaign design team for the campaign posters . . . His campaign design staff was actually just Jeremy, and Jeremy's special friend from art class, Veronica - but since Veronica's uncle was a State Assemblyman with access to all kinds of good sign making contacts, that was really all he needed. The posters and signs looked fantastic. In fact, they looked so good that Damon was strongly tempted to dig up dear old dad, and put one of his campaign posters inside the coffin. He never knew it would feel this good to see his name plastered in giant letters against a field of red, white and blue. Check.

Next item? Oh, yeah. The next item was to spend two hours working on his list of over a hundred years of victims. Not the cheeriest of projects, but Damon believed in doing his homework thoroughly. He owed Elena that much.

There were going to be many anonymous entries on his list. That was just a reality. It had been over a century, and getting the names of the people before he ate them was never a high priority. Even trying to just remember how _many_ he had killed was going to be a monumentally difficult task.

Damon had mostly been a catch and release sort of guy over those many decades. The only reason he had been so blatant about his slaughter two years ago in Mystic Falls was to try and drive Stefan out of town before it was time to open the tomb. In general, he didn't see much of a reason to be messy and obvious. Except for those days when you just get the _itch _and killing is the only thing that will scratch it, of course. So there were definitely fatalities that stood out for him, and he was trying to focus on those. He was up to the twentieth entry for 1864: 'Harmonia (or maybe Harmony?) Last Name Unknown, Age Unknown (but fortyish and still kind of hot)', when the call came. Unlisted.

"Elijah?"

Silence. "No, it's me."

"Oh. It's you."

"Yes," Elena's voice sounded small and very far away.

"So, the Berkshires are lovely in springtime."

"Yes, they are."

"Sounds like you floated up out of that hole in the lake."

"Yes," Elena cleared her throat. "I'm sorry, I thought this was a good idea, but-"

"Elena, don't hang up."

"Okay."

"I'm sorry, Elena. I'm sorry about that letter, I'm sorry that I'm not who you want me to be. You want me to value human life? Then I will." Damon paused, and then amended, "At least, I will try."

"It doesn't matter what I want."

"It does. It will always matter."

"I keep saying that I'm not going to burden you anymore, and then I go and put expectations on you. It's not like you didn't warn me in Denver. You owe me no promises of good behavior. You have your own struggles to deal with, and it's not fair, Damon. "

"It's fair if I say it is."

"I don't have the right. I'm sorry."

"Take the right. Demand it. It's always been yours if you wanted it."

Elena laughed, "This is a very frustrating conversation. I'm trying to apologize for being upset with you."

"And I'm trying to tell you it's okay for you to be upset with me. I want you to get mad at me. At least that means you care about what I do. That I matter to you."

"Oh, Damon, you have no idea."

"Then tell me. Make me have an idea." Damon's voice caught in his throat.

There was silence, and then, "I'm so scared, Damon. If I let myself feel, really and truly feel everything that I want to feel for you, that you need me to feel for you, everything that I am capable of feeling . . . it's terrifying. The very thought of it consumes me, like a flame. And I'm afraid that if I just let go, even for a _second_, it'll not only consume me, but everything and everyone around me. I don't know what it will destroy, what I will destroy," her voice dropped to the barest whisper, "so I can't."

It took Damon a few seconds to realize that she had ended the call. He sat there, still holding his phone, still holding his breath, until he knew for sure that she was not on the line anymore.


	18. Chapter 18

It started raining the morning of the hospital opening gala, and it kept raining off and on all day. Damon was on the phone most of the morning, making the arrangements to move the ceremony inside the new lobby instead of outside near where the new parking structure would be. There probably would be fewer people attending, too, because of the rain, so it shouldn't be too hard to fit them into the lobby. No room for dancing under the stars, though, but he figured that most people would just be grateful for that.

He was just getting off the phone with the caterer, to remind them to not overcook the chicken satays this time, when he heard the front door open. Damon walked to the living room, surprised to see a wet Meredith standing in the entryway, closing a dripping umbrella.

"Sorry," she said. "I didn't know if anyone would be home."

"Dr. Fell. Making a house call?" Damon indicated the couch, and she walked over and sat down.

"I'm here to see Jeremy, actually. I called him, and he said I could just wait here for him to get home from school."

"Well," Damon remarked, as he moved to the drinks cart and made them both a drink. "He's fine, in case you are wondering. You didn't have to come out in this kind of weather. The knee he hurt during the game last weekend has already healed."

"I'd imagine so, with this many vampires in one house."

"Ah, no. I've put a moratorium on all things of that nature. In this house, anyway. Band-aids and Bactine only from now on."

"Probably wise," Meredith took the glass he offered her with a small smile. "Thanks. No, actually, I asked Jeremy if he could . . . if I could talk to Ric."

"Oh," Damon said, as he sat down across from her. "I see."

She looked down at the glass in her hand, and then set it down without drinking from it. "I know it's crazy."

"Not any crazier than anything else I've known you to do. But I think I understand."

"Do you . . . have you talked to him?"

"Yeah. Not like, every day or anything, but we chat. Jeremy is a useful kid to have around in that respect." Damon took a drink, and then swirled his ice around in his glass. "Doesn't make me miss him any less, though."

"I know. I didn't think it would be the same, and I don't plan on making this a habit. I just-"

"I know, I get it."

They sat in silence for a second, and then Damon's phone buzzed. "Sorry," he said, making a face. "Lots to do. Feel free to hang out here. Jeremy gets home in a few minutes."

Damon looked down at his phone, expecting to see that Gwen Fell had called him back with word on whether or not she had located the podium that had gone missing, but the call was unlisted.

"Hello?"

"Damon."

"Elena."

"So I want to make a deal with you."

"Anything."

"I'm going to call you every day, okay?"

"Okay? That's much better than okay, Elena. That's freakin' fantastic."

"All right. So that's what I am going to do."

"And what's my end of this deal?"

"You just have to do what you always do, Damon. Just be you, and make things better."

"Is that what I do?"

"Yeah, it is."

"Not exactly what you would have said about me a year or so ago."

"Dying gives a girl a whole new perspective on her life. And on the boys in it."

"Well, heck, should have offed you myself long before now. Makes me feel downright stupid for having worked so hard to keep you alive over the past two years. You want to share any of this new perspective with me?"

"Not really. Not yet."

"Fair enough. You can't see me, but I'm pretty much doing cartwheels in the hallway right now."

Elena laughed, "I would pay to watch that."

"Well, maybe we should think about doing Skype, then."

"Maybe so."

"Or maybe you should just come home, and then we wouldn't have to. We could do cartwheels together. Naked."

"Nice try, Damon."

"So what made you decide this anyway?"

"Well, I'm trying some new things out. There's a lot of things Elijah wants me to do now. A new routine, a new system. Apparently, a little birdie told him I was being left to my own devices too much, or some such nonsense."

"That birdie was probably me."

"I thought so." She went quiet. "Thank you for that, by the way."

"So I wasn't wrong?"

"No, we were all just being misguided. I _need_ to be protected from myself. For awhile longer, anyway. And Elijah can't help it, he has this instinct to spoil me. I told him I wanted my independence, and so that's what he gave me. He gives me everything."

"Overly indulgent papa."

"I know, exactly. And I let him, because it's been so long since I had one of those. He actually gave me this house in Massachusetts. He put the deed in my name, so I wouldn't feel bad if I accidentally tore it all down someday. I don't know what it is with the men in my life, that they are always giving me houses."

"Well, you're just special like that, I guess. So calling me everyday is part of the new system?"

"Actually, yeah. I don't talk to anyone the way I talk to you. Elijah put it best, I think. He told me that _you_ were my humanity, Damon, and I think he's right. So If I'm going to stay connected to _me_, then I need to stay connected to _you._"

"Wow. And I have been saying such nasty things about Elijah in my head ever since I saw you in New York."

"He's a pretty smart guy. Basically, Elijah is who you will be in about 840 years."

"Oh, I don't think so. I'm going to be way more awesome than him."

"Oh, yeah? And why is that?"

"Because he's only known you for what? A year? And I'll have known you for a full 842 years. Hence, 841 times more awesome."

Elena laughed again, "See? Everything is better already."

"Yeah, it is."

"So we're cool?"

"Definitely. I can't say that I've ever been called anyone's humanity before, though. You know, considering that I'm a vampire."

"But you are just about the most human vampire I have ever known, Damon. You _might_ lose out to Caroline in a head to head match up, but you'd beat everyone else."

"Really don't know if that's a compliment or not, to be honest."

"Oh, it is, trust me. Anyway, I have to go . . . but I'll call you tomorrow, 'kay?"

"Okay," Damon said, not able to wipe the grin off his face. He was going to talk to Elena every day. Every fucking day. It didn't matter what happened to him now. The chicken satays could be too dry, Klaus could heckle him throughout his entire speech, the whole new hospital lobby could explode in his face, and he still knew he was never going to stop smiling.

* * *

Matt tugged at the collar of his tux. "I feel like I'm in a tux more often than I'm in my jeans these days."

"Well, it _is_ Mystic Falls," Jeremy said. "They issue us tuxes as soon as we turn thirteen."

"I think you look smashingly gorgeous," Katherine remarked to Matt, as she adjusted his bow tie for the third time. "I just love seeing you boys get dressed up."

"Hands off the quarterback, Katherine," Damon said. "Or it's going to get awkward for Stefan. What are you two up to this evening, anyway?"

"Oh, this and that," Katherine waved a hand. "Probably sex."

"Okay, and on that note, we're gone. C'mon, boys."

It was a pretty good turnout for a hospital re-opening gala. Must have been a slow tv night. Damon sent his boys to the hors d'ouvres table, and then he waved at Carol and Liz who were talking together in a corner.

Caroline came up behind him, and whispered, "Hello."

Damon turned to her, and whispered back, "Hello. Why are we whispering?"

"Because, nobody is supposed to know I'm helping you with your campaign, silly. Here," she thrust some notecards at him. "Just some things you might want to add to your speech. You know, about how Klaus loans money to Chinese people."

"What? He does what?"

"Well, I don't know what he _really _does. Xenophobia, though. Remember? That's our angle."

"Great, thanks. I'll keep that in mind. Not really sure how to squeeze in 'by the way, my opponent loans money to Chinese people' between my opening remarks and the moment of silence for the massacre victims, though. And besides, isn't it _borrowing _money from Chinese people that is suppose to be bad?"

"It is?" Caroline cocked her head. "Okay, whatever. Oh, there's Rebekah making a beeline for Matt. I can't believe she actually came out tonight. We had this huge fight about hanging streamers in the gym, _streamers _can you believe it, and it got pretty bad. I can't believe that she's brave enough to face me after the things she said."

"I know, you were fighting at my house, in my kitchen, remember? The two of you had Katherine in hysterics."

"Ugh, I don't like having Katherine around. What are you doing about that anyway? I miss the old Stefan."

"Working on it. Speaking of, have you seen Bonnie tonight?"

"No, don't think she's coming. Oh, forgot to tell you - I found out why Klaus hasn't used your dalliance with his sister against you in the campaign."

"Oh yeah? It's not just because he's too much of a gentleman to make his sister's sexual indiscretions public knowledge?"

"Oh, please. Not hardly. No, it's because he doesn't _know_. Rebekah made him think that she was coming over to your house to sleep with Matt. He's been teasing her for weeks about banging the high school quarterback. I guess she was just too ashamed to admit that she was actually banging _you. _Sex with you is just _that _humiliating."

"Well, that's just great. You really know how to boost a guy up before he has to make a major speech, Caroline. Truly, you are the power behind the throne."

She patted him on the arm, and said with a smile, "Go get 'em, tiger."

* * *

His speech was a resounding success, which came as no surprise to him. If there was one thing Damon could do well, it was stand up and talk. And at this point, he could practically give a rousing speech in his sleep. He'd already done two well attended campaign events that week at the Grill, and was starting to think that Caroline was right. Maybe they did have this in the bag. Klaus hadn't even bothered showing up at the gala at all.

Damon mingled with the crowd afterwards, making a special point to seek out Meredith. "Hey there."

"Hey. Great speech by the way. And the hospital- wow. Everyone who works here is pretty happy with the new changes."

"Thanks. It was a group effort. Anyway, I didn't see you leave the house, and I just wanted to know if you got what you wanted today. Answers, closure, whatever."

Meredith gave him a small smile, and then looked down at the glass in her hand. "I did. Thank you, Damon. And don't worry, I won't be bothering Jeremy again. Ric seems to have found a kind of peace. It was just good to know that."

"Yeah, I know." Damon gave her a little salute with his empty glass, and turned to move back towards the bar. Meredith put a hand on his arm to stop him.

"Oh, and Damon? I don't know if Jeremy remembered or not, but Ric asked us to tell you that you were right."

"About?"

"Mercury. He said it definitely could have been mercury. He tried to tell us more, but then he suddenly went away."

"Yeah, that means Esther muzzled him. She does that sometimes. They have a hate-hate relationship at the moment."

"But what does that mean- 'mercury'?"

"It means that I need to find a witch." Damon nodded at Meredith, and then moved on.

"Well, I think you were right, Damon."

"Pardon?" Damon turned, to see Carol at his elbow. "About what? I'm generally right about most things, so you will have to narrow it down a bit."

"About Klaus," Carol said. "I think he's completely lost interest. He didn't schedule a single campaign event anywhere in Mystic Falls this week."

"Well, small town politics always seemed like an odd fit, for him, you know? I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if he dropped out."

"Oh, we should be that lucky. Anyway, Damon, I am so pleased with how things are going. Great speech, by the way."

"Thanks, Carol."

Damon felt someone else tugging on his sleeve and he turned again to see Jeremy. "Hey, I just got a text from the Kebbels. Is it okay if I have a dog at the house?"

"What? No. Wait? What's a Kebbel?"

"You know, The Kebbels. Steve Kebbel, my dad's old medical school roommate - the people I was living with in Denver? You do remember Denver, right?"

"Oh, yes," Damon smirked. "I remember Denver very well. Denver is one of my _very _favorite places."

"Well, I left my dog with the Kebbels, and now they have to move to Minneapolis, and they want to send him here. Is that okay? I need to text them back."

"Dude, I don't care if you have a dog. Housebroken, right?"

"Um . . . yeah? Kinda?"

Damon gave him a look. "Really housebroken? That rug in the living room used to be in a museum, Gilbert. Not a very well guarded museum, but still."

"No, I swear, I'm pretty sure he's housebroken. By now, anyway."

Damon sighed. "Fine. But I cannot be held responsible if Stefan eats him."

"Thanks." Jeremy walked off, focused on composing his text, and Damon felt another hand on his sleeve.

"Honestly, people, this is John Varvatos. Be a little more careful-" he looked back, and then stiffened. "For fuck's sake, Katherine!" Damon hissed, "'Elena' can't keep popping in from Vermont like some kind of Jack-in-the-Box!"

Katherine shrugged. "Got bored. Stefan didn't want to do anything interesting."

Damon looked around quickly to see if anyone had spotted 'Elena' in a sexy black dress cut way down and way up.

"C'mon, let's go somewhere more private."

"Oh, Damon, finally! I knew you still found me utterly irresistible."

"Utterly a nuisance, maybe." He took her by the arm, and ushered her rapidly through the lobby doors. "Oh good, it finally stopped raining. Did you park in the lot in the front, or around back?"

"Are we going somewhere, or do you just want to get me into a confined space where we can be intimate?" She indicated Stefan's red Porsche in the front parking lot. "I'll even pretend to be her, if you like."

"Tempting, Katherine, but no." Damon walked her over to Stefan's car, and then leaned up against the door. "Okay, let's talk. So Stefan seems less interesting to you now? See, I find _that _to be very interesting in itself."

"Why is that, Damon?" Katherine asked, as she leaned up against him, and started to stroke his lapels. "Mmm . . . out of all of the Lost Boys, you definitely wear a tux the best. Yummy."

He covered her hands with his, and looked her in the eye. "Because I would have thought your witches could have juju'ed him into any kind of boyfriend you wanted. Couldn't they just make him into the most interesting boyfriend in the world?"

"I have no idea what you are talking about. My witch friends only dried him out. He told you himself."

"Right, because Stefan is such the reliable narrator these days. He writes an intriguing diary entry, doesn't he?"

Katherine's eyes grew wide. "Does he? I can't say that I spend much time violating my lover's privacy, Damon."

"No, only his mind and his personality and his body and his everything else, huh? What are you even getting out of this? It's not the _real_ Stefan that is worshipping you. This can't possibly be that satisfying in the long term." He paused, looking at her expression. "Oh, I see. Didn't really plan ahead, did we? Didn't fully understand what you were getting into?"

"I am not having this discussion with you, Damon." Katherine pulled her hands out of his. "Your brother is happy, so why don't you just stay out of it?"

"That is _not _my brother, so I really can't. I want Stefan back, Katherine. And when I get him back, you'll realize that you just screwed up _any _chance you ever had of the real Stefan loving you again someday. Honestly, I'm surprised. I did think you were smarter than this."

"I don't want to come across like the cliched movie villain here, but Damon? Mess with me, and you _will_ regret it."

"I would really like to have my witch talk to your witches someday, Katherine. You think we could arrange that? They don't even have to come here, we can just do it on Skype."

Katherine straightened up, and moved away. "I don't think so. My Martin friends are very busy." She indicated the door. "If you aren't going to entertain me properly here, than I'd like to go back home to my boy."

Damon opened the car door for her. "By all means."

As Katherine slid into the driver's seat, Damon leaned in towards her. "I will find your witches, Katherine, and I _will_ make them talk."

"Doubtful, Damon. And even if you did, it would do you little good. My witches are _so_ much better than yours." Katherine waved a hand at him as she closed the door, and then drove away.

Damon was smiling widely as she left, until he realized that he had just leaned up against a wet car in his $2300 John Varvatos tux.

"Oh," he looked down. "Fuck."


	19. Chapter 19

Damon assembled his team the next morning, right after he wrapped up a campaign event brunch with the Ruritans. He had the team meet in a spot in the woods where they could not be overheard. But as soon as he looked around, he realized that 'team' probably wasn't the right word.

"Oh, for fuck's sake," he said with a sigh. "Team Salvatore used to be so badass. And now I am reduced to working with _children._"

Caroline snorted. "I never signed up for anything called 'Team Salvatore'."

"Can't say that I did, either," Bonnie remarked.

"I don't mind that much. It's okay."

"Of course it is, Gilbert. You're just happy to be included in anything." said Tyler. "Why isn't Matt here, anyway?"

"Because s_omebody_ let Katherine compel him into being her lackey, that's why." Caroline said, pointing at Damon. "That somebody."

"Hey there, Blondie. Don't go pointing fingers unless you want _somebody _to break them off. Anyway, this is the situation." Damon paused for dramatic effect. "We're taking down Katherine."

"Didn't we already do that once? Last year?" Jeremy asked.

"Well, clearly, it didn't take the first time because she's still hanging around, making my life a misery." Damon responded.

"Wait a minute . . . if Katherine managed to compel Matt, then how do we know she hasn't also compelled Jeremy?" Tyler asked.

"She hasn't," said Jeremy. "Katherine is always hanging all over Matt, but she never pays me any attention."

"It's because of Matt's pretty blue eyes," Caroline said. Tyler shot her a look. "What? I can't help it that his eyes are pretty. They just are."

"Should I be offended?" asked Jeremy.

"No, you should be grateful. But Tyler has a point," Damon said, looking over at Tyler. "And I am simply shocked that you made a potentially valuable contribution, Lockwood. Why don't you do the honors?"

Tyler walked up to Jeremy, and widened his eyes at him. "Cluck like a chicken, Gilbert."

"Um . . . no?" Jeremy responded.

"All right then, I guess that answers that. So, mes enfants, can we get on with taking down the she-devil, please?"

"What do we need to do, Damon? I assume you have a plan," Bonnie said.

"I do, indeed. It's a classic plan, one that we know will work. Because it already worked last year."

"You want me to use Emily's spell to create another vampire trap?"

"Yep, I definitely do. In our dear old friend, the tomb under the former Fell's Church."

"And you want me to lure Katherine out, and get her trapped there?" asked Caroline.

"Actually, no, Caroline. You were a little too good at that job last year, so Katherine is bound to suspect you this time around."

"So what is the plan, then?" asked Tyler.

"First, Bonnie does that voodoo she does so well, and sets up the tomb for its reunion with its former inhabitant. Then, I'm going to let Matt, and maybe even Katherine, overhear me trying to find me some Martin witch ladies. The ones in Chicago that do the dark juju."

"Good, I would really like to have a chat with Keely Martin so I can undo that spell."

"Oh, no, Bonnie. Not going to happen. You are never meeting that witch."

"What? Why are we trying to find the Martins then?"

"We aren't. When all of this goes down, I don't want Katherine to have a witchy ally within a hundred miles of here. If she thinks we are trying to find them, she will make sure they stay far, far away. Which is just what we want. Otherwise, they could pop her out of the tomb, and that would be bad. And besides, we do not need a witch showdown taking place in town. No offense, but I'm pretty sure that Katherine's dark witch is way better than you at dark witch stuff. Or any other kind of witch stuff."

Bonnie glared at him.

"What? I said 'no offense'. Geez, so touchy. Anyway, once Katherine thinks we are exclusively focused on the witch angle, and closing in, she'll contact them and make sure they keep away and stay hidden. Then we can grab her and get her into the tomb. No trickery, though, I'm actually just thinking about brute force this time."

"None of us is strong enough, though." Caroline objected.

"I might be," suggested Tyler. "Hybrids are pretty strong."

"Yeah, but maybe not as strong as a 500 year old vamp. We only get one shot at this, and I don't want to take the chance that we are wrong about that match up. So it'll take all three of us, Caroline, me and you. But if things go wrong, I don't want anyone to accidentally kill her." Damon looked over at Jeremy, who had his hand up. "Yeah?"

"I am very confused. I have no problem with taking down Katherine, I mean, just the fact that she has compelled Matt is good enough for me. But . . . why are we doing this, exactly? You say you _don't_ want to kill her? And what's with all the witches?"

"Katherine's witch friend used dark magic on Stefan to make him be in love with her," Bonnie explained. "If we just kill her, we don't know what that will do to Stefan."

"Right, but that's not the only reason why we need to stash Katherine someplace where she is trapped, but no vamp can get in to kill her," Damon said. "It's because she has the silver stake."

"What?" Caroline's head swiveled around to Damon. "How?"

"No clue how. It's possible that she's been using Matt as her eyes and ears for a long time. If so, then there's no telling how long Katherine was hiding in Mystic Falls. She easily could have been the one that followed me to the U-Store-It and took the stake from there. We know _somebody_ did."

"But how do we know it was her?" Bonnie asked.

"Because of what the dead witches told you, Bonnie. Mercury. When you said 'mercury', it reminded me that Ric used to complain that his ring would slosh when he moved his hand too fast."

"His ring would what now?" Caroline asked.

"Slosh," Damon grabbed Jeremy's hand, and moved it through the air. "Hear that, fellow vamps with super hearing? Just the tiniest little liquid noise."

"Yeah, mine has always done that," Jeremy said. "It's annoying."

"Right. That's because inside the center of the ring, there's a little bit of liquid mercury. It's the mercury that holds the magic that makes the ring work. And when Esther melted Ric's ring to coat the white oak stake, it was the magic mercury that made the stake indestructible."

"Emily didn't mention the mercury in her grimoire where she describes making the rings for the Gilberts. I would have caught that reference if she had, as soon as the dead witches said it." Bonnie commented.

"No, but did she use the word 'hydrargyum', or 'quicksilver', maybe?"

"'Hydrargyum' sounds familiar."

"That's an old word for mercury. So there you go. Huh, if I hadn't been so distracted by everything else in this town, I would have remembered to just check Emily's cookbook when I first made the connection to the eternity rings." Damon smacked himself in the forehead. "That was dumb, Damon. Anyway, I don't know why the witches couldn't just come right out and say, 'hey, guess what? Katherine has that silver stake you are looking for!', but that's witches for you. Always making things difficult. They might have been trying to avoid alerting Esther, though."

"Why would Esther care?" Bonnie asked.

"Well, I'm pretty sure Esther would much rather that Katherine have the stake than for one of us to have it. If I get ahold of it, correction, _when _I get ahold of it _again_, I'm encasing that bastard in a block of concrete, putting it inside a safe, encasing the safe inside another block of concrete, and burying the whole damn thing in the bottom of a quarry. In Siberia. And then filling the entire quarry with vervain. I'm predictable like that. But Katherine? No way would she put it that far out of play, just in case she needed it for leverage someday. And Esther _wants_ the stake to remain accessible."

"So how do we get Katherine to tell us where the stake is?" asked Caroline.

"That's where having Originals in our town finally comes in handy. We trap her, wait for the vervain to leave her system, and then have Rebekah compel her to both tell us how to save Stefan, and where she hid the stake. Easy."

"We seriously have to involve Rebekah?" Caroline made a face.

"Yes, Caroline, we do. Klaus won't wait for the vervain to leave her system. He'd probably just torture her, and then kill her. Or, he would wait, find the stake, and then kill her afterwards. And we still don't know what killing Katherine will do to Stefan. So we need to ask Rebekah, pretty please, help us find the stake and save Stefan, but don't kill the lady that stole it and cursed him. Rebekah has a soft spot for my brother, so I think she'll agree."

"I always thought Klaus had a soft spot for Stefan, too," Tyler said, with a grin.

"Well, since Stefan is the one who desiccated him, I'm not willing to take the chance that he no longer does."

"My head is spinning," Jeremy complained.

"Welcome to the club. That's my life twenty four seven. So, everyone clear on the first part? Spell the tomb, make Katherine hide her witches, grab Katherine, throw her in the tomb? If we do all of that, everything else will take care of itself."

"What about Stefan?" Caroline asked.

"What do you mean?"

"He thinks he is in love with Katherine, he's not going to let us grab her and take her away."

Damon thought for a second. "Good point. Maybe we need to involve Rebekah earlier in our plan. The three of us will not be enough to both overpower Katherine _and _keep Stefan from interfering. I'll give Becks a call as soon as I know Bonnie has the tomb ready. I didn't want to tell her about any of this too early, because I don't want Klaus to find out. Mikaelsons are too unpredictable."

"But wait . . . is any of this going to interfere with prom?"

Damon sighed. "No, Caroline. We have almost whole week until prom, pretty sure we can take care of this she-devil issue before then. Hoping to get all of this done in the next two days, actually, because I don't want it to interfere with the election, either." He looked around at his team again. "It's not that complicated, folks. Keep your phones on, and I'll text you when it's ready to go down. We cool?"

They all nodded, except Jeremy. "So . . . what do I do, exactly?"

"Just try not to get in our way, Gilbert." Tyler smirked at him.

* * *

Damon and Bonnie went out to the old tomb to make sure it was going to be usable for their purpose. It was quite overgrown, but they could still access it.

"I don't like how deep it goes, though," Damon commented, peering inside. "I wonder if we should use the Lockwood werewolf cellar instead. If Katherine goes far enough back there, Rebekah won't be able to compel her."

"Not a problem," Bonnie replied. "I can spell both sides, to make a smaller trap. She won't be able to go all the way to the back, or come out the front."

Damon was impressed. "Well, look at you, Bonnie. You sure you have the power for that?"

"I have all the power that I need, Damon. The witch spirits are not happy with Katherine."

"Well, as to that, you will have to be prepared for Esther to push back against you, you know."

"I can handle Esther. She does not get to make a fool of me a second time."

"You've come a long way, BonBon, from those early days." He glanced around the interior of the tomb again. "Give Katherine no more than twenty square feet. That should just about do it. Okay if I leave you here?"

Bonnie nodded. "I actually have to go back to my house for Emily's grimoire, and then I'll come right back here and do the spell. No point in putting it off."

"Appreciate it," Damon gave her a little salute. "I know I don't say it enough, or ever, Bonnie, but it's good to have you in this town."

"I love my friends, Damon. I want that stake found and contained as much as you do. Oh, wait -" She put a hand in her pocket and pulled out a small box. "Almost forgot. Here's that present you asked me to do for Elena. It's a nice gesture, and I think she'll like it."

He took the box from her, with a smile. "Excellent."

"She called me last night, you know. She apologized for . . . for everything. She actually sounded pretty good. Almost like the old Elena."

"She still is the old Elena," Damon remarked. "Essentially. I don't know why I'm the only one who remembers that."

"I'm trying, Damon. It's hard to forget the look in her eye when she almost killed me that first night."

"You humans sure do know how to hold a grudge." Damon shook his head, and then gave her a wink. "Bye, Bonnie Bennett."

He left her there, marking the boundaries of the trap with stones. It was time for him to go back to the house and put the next part of the plan in motion. Damon was definitely looking forward to this - he only hoped Katherine was around to 'overhear' him, and not off shopping again.

The house was quiet when he entered. The only sound came from the Playstation room, where Matt was rather obviously engaged in playing Call of Duty. Damon poked his head inside. "Hey you."

"Yeah?"

"You seen Katherine and Stefan around?"

"They left. Couple of hours ago." Matt didn't look up from his game.

"Well, did they say when they are coming back?"

"Not coming back."

"Wait, what?"

"Katherine told me to tell you that she knows what you are up to and that it's not going to work, and sayonara forever, sucker." Matt looked up at Damon. "In those exact words."

"Fuck," Damon said. "Wait - what does she think I am up to? Did she say?"

"She said you are not going to get anywhere near her witches, and just leave her and Stefan alone, she will take good care of him, and at least he's not a ripper anymore, which is better than that bitch Lexi could ever do, and you should be grateful. Wait, why did I just say all of that?" he shook his head. "What's going on, Damon?"

Damon grimaced. "No worries, Matt. Back to your game."

"Not good, not good," Damon murmured to himself as he ran upstairs to check Stefan's room. All of Katherine's bags and things were gone. So was Stefan's most recent diary.

He called Bonnie from Stefan's room. "I miscalculated."

"Damon? What happened?"

"I fucking miscalculated, Bonnie. I must have overdone it last night, and Katherine bolted. I keep forgetting that she's a runner. She took Stefan, and now everything is fucking ruined. I think I lost him this time. He's gone."

Bonnie was quiet. "I don't know what to say, Damon. Maybe they will come back."

"Yeah, maybe. Go ahead and spell the tomb, just in case." He ended the call.

Damon stood in the middle of Stefan's room, and felt lost. He had no silver stake, no dark witch, no evil doppelganger, and no brother.

His phone rang. Unlisted.

"Hey."

"Hey there. Told you I would call everyday."

"And you are a woman of your word."

"What's wrong? You sound upset."

"Sorry," Damon ran a hand through his hair and sat down on Stefan's bed. "It's just been one of those days. You know the kind where everything is going your way, all the way down the line until you hit a giant motherfucking wall, and it all falls apart?"

"I definitely know those days, Damon."

"I'm sure you do." He paused, and added, "I need you, Elena."

Elena didn't say anything for a second, and then, "Do you?"

"Yeah. I need you here more than anything. I know it freaks you out to be needed, but I just can't hold it all together anymore. I keep tricking myself into thinking I'm on top of all of it. But it's a lie. I can't run this town. I can't help anybody. Epic fail after epic fail. I don't even know why I keep trying."

"Because it's what you do, Damon. It's who you are. You need to be needed, that's your curse."

Damon laughed, harshly. "I don't need this, that's for sure."

"I don't know how to help you, Damon. I wish I did. I wish I could do for you what you always do for me. Make it all better."

Damon took a deep breath. "Honestly, Elena? Just the fact that you want to, kinda does."

"Good." Elena added, "I'm going to text you my phone number, Damon."

"Wow. I feel so honored."

"Well, you should. Only three other people on the planet have it."

"Aren't you worried that I'm going to start relying on it, and on you too much? Doesn't that scare you, or make you want to rip down a coffee shop?"

"I don't know, Damon," Elena said, with a sigh. "Maybe it's finally time. Maybe I need to be needed, too."


	20. Chapter 20

Damon didn't know how to focus on his campaign when he couldn't stop thinking about how to find Stefan. This wasn't like last summer, when Klaus and Stefan left a trail a mile wide because they weren't even trying to hide. Katherine had been running for five hundred years and had a million boltholes. Damon didn't have a hope in hell of tracking them down.

His distraction during their daily strategy call annoyed Caroline greatly.

"I'm telling you something important!" Caroline said in exasperation.

"Sorry. What was it?"

"I'm trying to tell you that I know why Klaus hasn't had any campaign events, like at all during this whole election cycle."

"Because he's basically a selfish toddler who can't be bothered to do any actual work?"

Caroline giggled. "Well, there is that, of course. But it's also because he's planning on sending his remaining two hybrids door to door to compel votes. The really dumb one, Marissa, keeps forgetting that Tyler isn't sired anymore, and she tells him everything. See? That's pretty important information. Klaus is going to cheat."

"Of course he is," Damon said. "Good thing I assumed he would."

"You did?"

"Yep. Greg Fell is on the Council."

"Yeah? And?"

"And he's also the head of the water board. Ever since the Council found out about you and Tyler, he's been bugging me to let him add vervain to the town water supply. I couldn't see how that could possibly benefit me," Damon said. "Until, of course, this election. I realized that Klaus was bound to cheat in some way, so I had a truckload delivered to Greg Fell this morning. Had to have it shipped in from Oregon, but it made Greg so happy."

"Wait- how am I supposed to take a shower or brush my teeth?"

"I have two giant cisterns of vervain-free water for us, Caroline. I'm not an idiot. You can tell Tyler, but Klaus and Becks will just have to figure it out on their own. What's in the water now will cycle out in a few days."

Caroline shrieked so loud that it hurt Damon's ear. "So smart! Okay, then, we are ready to rock and roll with this election. I know we've got the votes of anyone related to anyone on the Council wrapped up, plus all of those connected to the massacre victims, or involved with the hospital. The whole town knows you are the driving force behind rebuilding it. Also, we probably have the votes of just about anyone with children now that the press release has gone out about the new pediatric oncology center." She paused, and then asked, "What is up with that, anyway? You paying for it yourself?"

"Maybe. Haven't talked to Elijah, yet. Not sure the Salvatore pockets are quite deep enough to do the whole thing on my own, though. If Elijah balks, might have to do a whole lot of fundraising."

"I didn't see this one coming, Damon, but it is _awesome_ for the campaign. Wait, you aren't . . . are you planning on using _your _blood to cure kids with cancer?"

"I don't know," Damon said, suddenly embarrassed. "It was just an idea. Was going to discuss it with Elijah and Meredith, actually. See if they can do something all sciency that would work without creating a bunch of tiny bald vampires. That would get annoying pretty quickly."

"Well, I have to admit, I'm a little surprised. The Damon I thought I knew wouldn't give two nickels for dying human children."

Damon cleared his throat. "Well, maybe it's time for all of us to try new things. My new thing is, you know, valuing human life. Somebody suggested it."

Damon could practically hear Caroline shrug over the phone. "Well, okay then. I think that's all we need to talk about. You only have three more events to do this week, and then we hit the polls."

"Okey doke," Damon said.

"And Damon?" Caroline said. "I'm sorry about Stefan. You couldn't have known she was going to take off like that."

"I _should_ have known. This is my fault. If I had fewer things going on all at once, I would have anticipated this."

"Well," Caroline hesitated. "I have an idea, but I don't know if you are going to like it."

"Anything, Caroline. Seriously, I'm desperate."

"I think we should go to Klaus."

"What? No. Not that desperate."

"Just hear me out . . . Katherine and Klaus made a deal, right? She's _supposed _to be helping him find the stake. Clearly, she's not doing that. But he also must have a way of contacting her. She's not going to answer the phone when any of us call her, but she can't risk ignoring Klaus completely. So we have two angles with which to approach Klaus. We can tell him the whole truth, stake and everything, and absolutely know that he will handle dragging Katherine back. That would mean dealing with whatever fallout there is from that - torture, death or whatever . . . or we can tell him a partial truth."

"I hate the full truth idea, so give me the partial truth one."

"We could tell him just about Katherine's rapey love spell. I don't think Klaus would be happy about that. I know you probably don't believe this, but Klaus does have genuine feelings about Stefan. He's been pouty with Stefan for a couple of months, but that doesn't mean Klaus wouldn't step in if Stefan really needed help."

"This does not sound very likely to me, Caroline. I think you overrate Klaus's affection for Stefan by a whole lot."

"And I think you underrate it. What do we have to lose, anyway? If Klaus isn't interested in luring Katherine back to Mystic Falls for Stefan's sake, then we've told him nothing crucial and oh, well. The worst he can do is laugh at us and say no."

"We're opponents in a campaign for fuck's sake, Caroline. I can't just go marching up to his door, asking for favors."

"No, but I can. I'm not officially affiliated in any way with you, and Klaus has no idea I'm working with his opponent."

"Hmmm . . . and Klaus is more than mildly obsessed with you," Damon said, thoughtfully. "Has he gotten over the Paris incident?"

"He must have, because he's offered to be my prom escort three times - even though I have told him he is way too creepy old for prom. Tyler is ready to explode about it."

"Well, make Tyler hold off on exploding. Until we get Katherine back here, at least."

"I'm on it, Damon. I'll head over to Klaus's house this afternoon."

"Great. Oh, and Caroline?"

"Yeah?"

"Don't feel like you need to, you know, have sexytimes with him or anything. Well, unless you think that's the only way."

"Damon, you did not just say that," Caroline said. "_Ew._"

* * *

Damon brooded in front of the fire with a glass of bourbon. He didn't want to think about what would happen if Klaus refused to help them. A long future stretched before him, one without either his love or his brother by his side. Eventually his boys were going to move out and go off to college. They were never going to call or visit. Caroline, Tyler and Bonnie would probably leave town as well someday. Carol and Liz would grow old and die. Even all the bothersome Fells would eventually die off. He could see what it was going to be like for him - an ancient vampire, shut up in a lonely house full of antiques like himself, dreaming of a day long ago when people needed him, surrounded now by a town that didn't remember him at all.

Or he could just say fuck it, and move to Las Vegas and party like a maniac. Compel a couple of showgirls and live like a vampire king. Whatever.

Perhaps thankfully, Elena's call that day came a little earlier than usual.

"Hey you."

"Hey you back."

"You sound a little less upset. What are you up to today?"

"Not too much. Moping, brooding, indulging in gloomy fantasies. Missing you, mostly."

"Damon." Elena went quiet.

"Sorry, I had to make it all serious. Didn't mean to."

"It's okay," she said. "We can be serious if you want. Serious can be good, too. I'm not complaining about you missing me. It's kind of nice to know that you do. I need to practice not being freaked out by the idea anyway."

"Okay, so let's practice . . . I'll say something about how much I love you, and then you react to it without destroying that nice house that Elijah gave you."

Elena laughed. "The fact that you love me isn't going to trigger an episode, Damon. I'm fairly accustomed to the idea by now."

"Well, you should be. I've said it often enough."

"It's one of my favorite things about you, you know. Even when you had no hope of me loving you back, you were still willing to let me know that you loved me. So many little ways, so many big ones. You spoiled me, Damon. I knew I could take your love for granted. I never had to work for it. Never had to give you anything at all," she said. "And yet still you loved."

"Katherine says it makes me a fool," Damon said, finishing off his drink in a single swallow.

"It makes you strong. Makes you brave. I've never seen anyone love the way you love."

"It hasn't worked out that well for me, though. Still sitting here in this house alone."

"Why?" Elena asked. "Where's Stefan and everyone else?"

"Oh, don't listen to me. They are just all out, that's all. Everything is fine. Just sitting here, feeling sorry for myself for no good reason."

"Well, if it makes you feel any better, I'm _not _sitting in a house alone. I know that's your big thing, that I should never be left alone again."

"Your friend with you?"

"Yeah. We're going to go out to an old barn on the property here in awhile, and tear it down. Tearing something down when I'm not actually upset about anything is just the greatest feeling ever."

"You know, this inclination for property destruction still surprises me. Doesn't line up with anything I knew about you when you were human."

"I know, right? It kind of surprises me, too. Bart has this theory, though, about why some vampires are smashers, and some are rippers."

"Really?"

"Yeah, he's been studying both categories for some time. He's only met a few smashers, but all of them were particularly respectful of human life when they were still human. People who loved deeply and were loved deeply in return. So when they start feeling killer instincts, they take it out on buildings and _things_ instead of on people. Not that it's foolproof, obviously. We are still vampires with bloodlust and volatility and the rest of it. But as a theory it makes sense to me. I always look for _something _to destroy before I look for s_omeone."_

"Well, that's you all right. But then why do you still enjoy tearing stuff down when you aren't feeling killery?"

"Good question," Elena was quiet for a second, and then said, "I can't speak for Brother Bartholomew, but it's all about freedom for me. Ripping, tearing, smashing - it just feels good. A way to let all the emotions out in one massive frenzy. And when it's over, I'm free of them. Like I'm not holding so many feelings inside anymore, and I can finally be at peace. You know, I've never articulated it before, Damon. I told you that talking to you would be good for me."

"I should be charging you by the hour, then."

Elena laughed. "Can you imagine if I walked into a regular human therapist's office and told them everything? They would lock themselves into the looney bin right beside me."

"So that's smashers . . . what does your friend say about rippers?"

"Ah, rippers are way more interesting, actually. His theory is that a vampire becomes a ripper if the blood they drink to transition belongs to a close relative."

"Wow. Okay, that is super interesting."

"I know, right? He's known a couple of dozen rippers in seven hundred years, and several of them fed on family members when they were transitioning. He obviously wasn't able to ask all of them, but there have been too many to be just a coincidence. He thinks there is something about transitioning on blood so much like your own that creates a blood frenzy inside, so you are then controlled by blood. You should tell Stefan about this. He'd probably find it interesting, too."

"Yeah, maybe I will."

"So it's a very good thing Bonnie was around when I completed my transition, and not Jeremy. Such a good thing. I know we aren't technically siblings, but a cousin relationship might be close enough. Even Elijah would have staked me if I was both a ripper _and_ a smasher turned by an Original. I would have been a spectacular disaster. Elijah has a zero tolerance policy for rippers in general, anyway."

"Elijah has let Stefan live, so how does he justify that?"

"Well, we've talked about that a lot. Bart doesn't understand why Elijah hasn't killed Stefan yet. But Elijah has a lot of respect for Stefan's struggle to overcome his ripper nature, and he carries a great deal of guilt about what Klaus has put Stefan through. And he knows, of course, that I'd be out the door in a second if he had Stefan killed. No more dutiful Mikaelson daughter, that's for sure. He'd never see me again."

"That's a threat that probably works. Elijah seems to be very fond of you."

"He is. Elijah has always wanted a family. In a different way than Klaus, of course. Elijah needs someone to take care of, Klaus just wants people to be blindly loyal to him."

"Elijah ever tell you about their old girlfriend? Tatia?"

"Oh, yeah. Elijah tells me stories about her all of the time. I guess I can't help but remind him of her. I like hearing about her, but it makes him sad, sometimes."

"You wear the face of the woman he loved a thousand years ago. It has to be strange."

"I wear Katherine's face, too. Is it strange for you?"

"No, Elena. You don't wear Katherine's face at all, and you never will. Your face is Elena's face, that's all. My most favorite face ever. I never look at you and think of her."

"Oh, Damon. I'm sort of blushing right now. Just a little bit. Too bad you can't see me."

"Definitely too bad."

"I have to go smash an old barn now, but I'll call you tomorrow, 'kay?"

"Okay," Damon responded.

Elena ended the call, and Damon stayed by the fire, alone.

* * *

Damon got tired of waiting for Caroline to call him back with news about Klaus's decision, so he decided to wait for her at her house instead. He pulled into her empty driveway, noting that Sheriff Forbes wasn't home, either. So he sat there in his car by himself, reliving his recent calls with Elena, wondering if they were ever going to be in the same physical vicinity again. She didn't seem to be the least bit inclined to come home, and honestly, he had a hard time imagining Smasher Elena adjusting to life in Mystic Falls again. He could buy some empty fields outside of town, and cart a dozen old tobacco barns in from Tennessee or North Carolina or wherever, and line them up for her to knock down. Maybe that would be enough to entice her to return.

Caroline drove up and was out of her car before he even realized she was there.

She tapped on his car window. "Still distracted, Damon?"

"Just a bit," he responded, rolling down the window. "Well?"

"Come inside, I don't want Mr. Fell to notice us talking out here. Although, he's going to see your car anyway. Probably not the greatest idea, Damon." Caroline rolled her eyes at him. "We're supposed to be covert, you know."

"Don't care." Damon said, as he followed her into the house, and sat on her living room couch. "Okay, girl, spill it."

"Well, we were right that Klaus has a way to contact Katherine. He gave her the same kind of burner cell his hybrids carry. She's supposed to check in with him weekly, that's part of their agreement. But she didn't this week, and he was livid when he realized that. I don't think he had even noticed she was gone until I mentioned that she skipped town. He views her as another one of his minions, which is not how she seems to see herself."

Damon snorted, "Not hardly."

"So he claims that he wants to drag her back because he didn't give her permission to leave town in the first place, and not because he wants to help us save Stefan from her clutches. I don't believe that for a second, though. He is still all bromancy about your brother, he just won't admit it."

"So I take it that you didn't have to trade any sexual favors to gain his assistance?"

"Seriously, you are going to ask me that?"

Damon shrugged. "I don't know, Caroline. Sometimes it just seems to me that you don't hate Klaus quite as much as you pretend to, that's all."

Caroline looked at him. "I never said I hated him, Damon. I'm still angry over what he did to me in Tennessee, sure. And I definitely don't want to see him become mayor. And I am _not_ giving into any of his advances. But I don't hate Klaus." She waved a hand around, "It's just complicated, that's all. You wouldn't understand."

"Oh, probably not. It's not like I have any experience at all with complicated relationships." Damon smirked at her. "I just hope Tyler doesn't mind how _complicated_ it is between you and Klaus. Anyway, what's the next step for us?"

"The next step for you is to attend your campaign dinner at the Grill tonight, and shake hands with all the rich people that turn out to meet you. Otherwise, you just need to wait for Klaus to come through. I don't think Katherine will ignore his summons. She wants this truce to work pretty badly, right? She doesn't want to have to run for another 500 years."

"That's what I'm counting on, anyway." Damon stood, and turned to leave. "Win or lose, you're the best, Caroline Forbes. I'll check in with you after the dinner tonight."

Caroline gave him a wary look. "Okay, that's just weird."

"What?"

"You! You're being like, extra nice. You've been nice a lot lately. Add that to you wanting to cure kids with cancer, and you are starting to freak me out."

"Am I always such a dick to everyone that being nice comes as a surprise?"

"Yeah, actually. It does."

"Well, don't get too used to it." Damon gave her a wink, and then left.

* * *

The house was still empty and quiet when he returned. The boys were at baseball practice. Damon made himself a drink, and then sat before the fire again. He pulled out his phone and sat there in the stillness, thinking about what Elena has said about needing to be needed. He dialed her number before he could change his mind.

"Damon?"

"Hey."

"Is everything okay?"

"Just testing a theory."

"I'm not going to freak out because you call me, Damon."

"Well, that's good to know."

"You still feeling a little bit lonely?"

"Always." He cleared his throat. "Hey, so do you remember the first time we met?"

Elena was quiet. "The night my parents died."

"Is it a problem to talk about that? Make you go all smashy?"

"No, it's okay. I really did unload a whole bunch of feelings at the barn today. I'm doing fine. We can talk about it."

"We've never discussed anything that I compelled you to forget, and I thought maybe it was time we did."

"I thought you were really hot. My mysterious stranger with the bright blue eyes."

Damon laughed. "You did?"

"Yeah. I remember thinking, 'hey, maybe I should break up with Matt after all, and just hop on this guy's motorcycle and see the world with him.' "

"I didn't have a motorcycle."

"Well, for some reason, 16 year old me was convinced that you did. And that stuff you said about a love that consumes, and wanting passion and danger - all of that definitely made me think you had a motorcycle tucked away in the bushes."

"I almost wish I had, now. Would you like me to get one?"

"That could be fun, Damon." She went quiet again. "So you really were in Mystic Falls, already? That long before the comet?"

"Yes. I watched Stefan watch you for quite awhile. He never knew I was there."

"That's a little creepy."

"I know, but it was just so funny to me. So surreal. He thought you were Katherine. And once he figured out you weren't, he was completely paralyzed with indecision. I wanted to kick his ass."

"He eventually got brave, though."

"Just in time to screw me over. I _needed_ him to leave Mystic Falls before I opened the tomb, but the bastard just wouldn't go. Totally your fault. You and those big brown eyes of yours."

Elena laughed. "You must have hated me. I was getting in the way of your master plan."

"Never. I still remembered that sweet girl I met in the road that day, the one who didn't know what she wanted out of life."

"And now it doesn't matter, anyway. That poor dumb kid only had two years of life left to her. I wish I could go back and tell her that."

"I wonder what kind of difference that would have made. To stand there, knowing then what you know now. Anything you would have done differently?"

"I don't know, really. Obviously, I wouldn't have let my parents drive off Wickery Bridge. But the other stuff . . . I wouldn't trade in loving Stefan, and being loved by him in return. It was a journey that I needed to go on. Even if I had gone into the relationship knowing he was a vampire." She was quiet. "I don't blame him for not telling me. I mean, vampires? It's crazy. I understand that he wanted to get to know me first, as a human. But afterwards . . . after I knew . . . I'm sometimes resentful that he didn't let me know anything about his ripper past until he had to. Stefan made being a vampire seem like all bunnies and walking in the sun. It wasn't an honest representation. I went far too long thinking that he was the ideal to emulate, and he just wasn't. That made my transition even more difficult for me."

Damon took a drink of his bourbon and said, thoughtfully, "I should have kicked his ass for that, too."

"Well, you did try to warn me about putting him on a pedestal. And he was honest, for the most part. He really did think he had it under control. And now, of course, I know that control is always an illusion. All vampires are ticking time bombs. It's just, with a ripper, the boom is that much bigger when the bomb goes off. Kind of like me, now. I understand Stefan so much better these days. He tries so hard. Just like I do."

"I almost embarrassed by how easy I have it in comparison to you two. I got lucky. Just an ordinary vampire. A regular old monster. A shark with legs, maybe, but nothing as extreme as what the two of you have struggled with."

"We're the lucky ones, to have you in our lives. Somebody to remind us why the struggle is all worth it. I'm so glad Stefan has you there with him. Brothers forever."

"Yeah," Damon echoed, hollowly. "Brothers forever."

"And the other thing you compelled me to forget?"

"Well, it's hardly a revelation for you to know that I was in love with you that far back. You already did know it, you just hadn't heard me say it."

"I know, you're right. But I just wanted you to know that I was _this_ close to loving you, too. Even back then. Just there, right on the brink."

"Confusing for you, wasn't it?"

"That's an understatement. I was just a kid, Damon. And I thought it made me a terrible person to love two brothers at the same time."

"Now you know it's not so terrible after all, I guess."

"Now I know that there's nothing terrible about love - in any form, in any multitude."

"You're still a kid, though."

"Yeah," Elena said. "I know."


	21. Chapter 21

The next few days went by in a blur for Damon. A blur of campaign events, daily calls with Elena, yelling at Matt and Jeremy about the laundry, and refereeing between Rebekah and Caroline during the last couple of prom planning meetings. He threw Rebekah out of his house after a particularly heated discussion over finalizing the play list for the DJ ended with Rebekah breaking one of the kitchen chair legs off, and staking Caroline in the stomach with it. Thankfully, that was the one meeting Melody Fell hadn't attended. Damon wasn't keen about mopping up Caroline's blood from his brand new kitchen floor, though, and he told Caroline and Matt that he was done hosting these meetings. They'd have to do their final one at the school.

Jeremy's dog arrived in a crate on Tuesday, and peed on Damon's favorite rug within the first five minutes of being inside the house.

"He's just excited," Jeremy said. "Don't eat him."

"Not going to eat him. Don't like the taste of golden retriever. But I do like the taste of teenagers, so you should probably start running, like, _now._"

Wisely, Jeremy and his dog managed to stay gone the rest of that day.

Three days since Klaus had reached out to summon his runaway minion. And yet, there was still no word from Katherine.

* * *

On Thursday morning, the day of the election, Damon came up from the cellar and paused on the threshold of the living room.

Katherine was laying across the arms of a chair, reading a magazine. She looked up at him. "Did you bring me one?" she asked, indicating the blood bag in his hand.

"No. Have your lackey Matt do it."

"Ah, so we figured that out, did we?"

"Yes, Katherine. Kind of a dead giveaway when he started spouting off at me with crazytalk after you left. Surprised you came back, by the way." He looked upstairs, where he could hear someone moving around in Stefan's room. "I assume you brought my brother home as well."

"I did. We weren't really leaving for good, you know. I just told Matt that to make you freak out a little."

"Yeah, well, it kind of worked."

"I can see that. You look a bit overworked, Damon. Life getting you down?"

"No, Katherine. Just you." Damon poured his blood bag into a glass, and then brought the glass over to the couch with him. He took a sip from his glass, as he looked steadily at her. "I assume you made sure your witches were tucked away safe before coming home."

"Yes, Damon. Far out of your reach."

"Well, that's just swell. Have I mentioned to you lately just how much I enjoy everything about you, Katherine? Oh wait, I couldn't have, because you fucking ran away." He finished his glass of blood, and then added, "Coward."

"Oh, please, Damon. Not a coward, Just smart. Smarter than you, anyway."

Damon gave her a salute with his empty glass. "Well, hello there, brother," he said, without turning around.

"Damon." Stefan crossed over to the drinks cart and made himself a drink. "Want one, Katherine?"

Katherine smiled at him, "Please, lover."

Damon cleared his throat, and then stood up. "Well, it's certainly nice to have the family back together again. Have to run, though. Getting elected mayor in a few hours."

"Best of luck, Damon, and I mean that most sincerely," Katherine said, reaching up to accept a glass from Stefan.

Damon gave them both a nod goodbye, before saying, "Oh, and by the way, Stefan? Don't eat Jeremy's dog, okay? He's strangely attached to the hairy thing, and I hate watching the kid cry. Although," he added, "if he pisses on my rug again, I'll run him through the blender for you myself."

* * *

As soon as he was in his car, Damon called Bonnie. "We're back on, witch."

"Katherine came back?"

"She did, indeed. Pretending of course, that she wasn't returning just because Klaus scared the fuck out of her."

"So what's the plan? The tomb has been spelled, and the trap is ready to go."

"Esther didn't give you any trouble?"

"She did. But we're good."

"I'm impressed, Bonnie. Good for you, showing that Original bitch what's what." Damon paused, thinking rapidly. "I don't want to do this today. I'm going to be involved in electiony things all day long and I can't see any real opportunity to do it. We could try snatching her out of bed in the middle of the night, maybe. But I'd rather not do that with Stefan around, if there's any way to avoid it. He'll fight like a motherfucking samurai if we drag her right out of his arms. I don't want to wait too long, though, and risk the chance that she'll bolt again."

"So we do it tomorrow?"

"Yes. Let Caroline and the others know that they need to be on alert. As soon as I think we have an opening, I'll text everyone."

"Will do. Caroline's not going to be happy if this interferes with prom, though."

"Tell Blondie I said to to suck it up."

After ending the call with Bonnie, Damon pulled out and starting driving to the Grill, which was going to be his campaign headquarters for the whole day. As he drove through one of the neighborhoods on the way into town, he was delighted to see Klaus' two hybrids standing outside a house, looking frustrated. Damon slowed the Camaro, and rolled down the window. "Having some difficulties? Anything I can do to help?"

The female hybrid just looked blankly at him, but the male hybrid actually growled. Damon smiled, and waved, and then drove away. Those were two hearts he wouldn't mind ripping out some day. He added that to his mental to do list. Elena seemed to want him to value _human_ life, but she hadn't said one damn thing about hybrids.

* * *

It was a very long day, even for someone with super strength and super endurance. It was a successful day, however. Damon swept the vote with 72%. It was surreal to him to be addressed as Mayor Salvatore all the rest of evening after the results came in. The entire Grill celebrated with lots of food and lots of booze, as Damon accepted the congratulations of all the Council members and the rest of his supporters. He was still in a bit of a daze at midnight, when he suddenly realized that he hadn't heard from Elena yet.

Damon went home, worried that not hearing from her meant something terrible had happened. This is what it was like to love the way he did, though. Liz once describe motherhood to him as having your heart walking outside of your body. He didn't feel the least bit parental towards Elena, but that phrase still resonated strongly. She _was_ his heart, and every second that they walked the earth apart, he felt the separation keenly.

She finally called him just as he was getting out of the shower later that night. He answered the phone, while wrapping a towel around his waist.

"Hello?"

"I'm bored, Damon."

"Elena?"

"Yeah."

"You're bored?"

"Yes. Kol is boring me to death with stories about his days in the Ye Olde West. You were a rootin' tootin' gunslinger, we get it. A vampire with a gun, what a stupid idea. Oh, wait, I guess I don't get to say 'to death' anymore, since his sister already killed me."

"Kol is out there with you? In the Berkshires, or did you return to Manhattan?"

"We're still here in Massachusetts. Sorry I didn't call until just now, but _somebody_ pissed off Elijah, and got sent out here to keep me company. Yeah, I know you can hear me, Kol, that's why I'm talking about you. Go away."

"That sucks for you."

"He's lucky I don't just dagger him. I do know where Elijah keeps them, after all. It might be worth risking suicide to do it."

"Why is this a good idea?"

"Oh, Elijah thinks I need a sparring partner. He wants me to 'redirect my physical energies towards a disciplined endeavor', so I'm supposed to be learning tae kwon do."

"Oh yeah, your new routine. Well, you sound pretty chipper. Anything else new since we last spoke?"

"Well, you know that Bart and I do yoga and meditation for two hours a day. That's going really well. After yoga, I'm now supposed to fight with Kol for awhile, which was actually sort of fun today. I'm definitely looking forward to the opportunity to kick his ass on a regular basis. We are are not doing any proper tae kwon do, just what we pick up from watching Korean action movies. We have Netflix here. We watched a lot of movies this evening."

Damon felt a knot of jealousy grow in his stomach. He sat down on his bed. "Huh."

"Oh, and I'm on a vervain regimen, as of this morning. I carry vervain with me everywhere, and if I start to feel overwhelmed or stressed out, I do a shot of it."

"Ouch."

"I know . . . it was Bart's idea. It gives me a little jolt, you know? Just that little bit of _something _that helps me find a second of detachment and keeps me from snapping the nearest neck or tearing down the nearest hospital. And I mix it with Bonnie's herbs, so I'm getting some medicine at the same time, too."

"Well, at least that bizarre drinking game means that you are on vervain, and Kol isn't compelling you to do freaky things with him."

Elena laughed. "Oh, you're funny. What about you? Anything going on?"

"Um . . . well, I had a thing tonight, and I have another thing tomorrow, so you know. Stuff."

"So specific," she teased him. "I feel like I'm there with you."

"Wish you were," Damon cleared his throat. "So anyway, are you sleeping with Kol?"

"What?"

"Just wondering."

"That's a crazy question."

"Not so crazy. I remember what it was like being newly turned. I was very hot to trot. And I'm guessing it's ten times worse for you, being all fancy Original-like as you are. I am just assuming you're not sexin' up your monkish friend or your overly indulgent papa."

"Seriously, Damon, you should know better. Ugh. Like I would sleep with the guy who beat you with a baseball bat. Twice. Is that what you think of me?"

"I don't know," Damon mumbled, suddenly feeling really glad that Rebekah had ended things.

"Well, I'm not sleeping with Kol. I'm not sleeping with anyone. You are really being very stupid, you know. And I don't want to talk about sex with you."

"Well, we _should _talk about sex, you know."

"Why is that?"

"Because it's pretty much inevitable that we are going to have it someday, you and me. We've both known that since Denver."

Elena was quiet for a second, and then said, "Inevitable? Is that what you think?"

"Don't you? I mean, we've been talking about love quite a bit, in a serious way. No surprise that I'm crazy _in_ love with you, emphasis on the _crazy_ - so I guess you just have to decide whether or not you are in love with me. Not a prerequisite for sex as far as I am concerned, though. So if you want to skip that step, I'm cool."

"That's not something that has to be decided - Ugh, seriously, Kol? _Seriously? _Sorry, Damon, but he's been listening to our entire conversation, and now he's making humping motions and kissy faces and trying to take my phone away. It's late anyway. Call you tomorrow, 'kay?"

"Okay," Damon said, to an empty phone line.

That girl was going to be the second death of him, he just knew it.

* * *

Caroline called him ridiculously early in the morning. "Okay, first off, congratulations on the election, and on getting your brother back. Secondly, no way, Damon. Nuh uh, no way, no how, it's _not_ going to happen, and you are a bastard for even suggesting it."

"What?"

"It's _prom_, Damon. Prom tonight. Hello? Do you even get what that means, even a _little_ bit? We are not going to do that thing you want to do that I'm not going to specify because I don't know who is near you who could hear this. Just . . . no."

"Caroline-" Damon began, but she cut him off.

"Forget it. I did not _bust my ass_ working to get you elected, only to let you _ruin prom._"

"You children," Damon sighed. "We had proper priorities back in my day. Would never let a silly dance get in the way of important endeavors."

"You didn't even have prom back then. You probably only had, I don't know, regular old boring cotillions or something. Nothing as monumental as _prom. _I have been literally dreaming of this day since I was five years old, Damon. I will _stake _you. I will stake the _hell_ out of you if you get in the way of prom."

"Okay, fine. But I'm not putting it off until tomorrow. We'll do it _after_ prom. Will that make you happy?"

"But that's after prom!"

"Yes, I know, that's what I said."

"No, I mean, there are after prom parties, duh." Caroline sighed. "But okay. I suppose Tyler and I can skip out of the parties for a little while."

"Thank you, Caroline. You're a peach, Caroline."

"Whatever. Now I'm off to get my hair done, so don't bother me for four hours _at least._"

"Don't you have school? It's a Friday."

"Of course, I'm skipping school, Damon. I have to get ready for _prom._"

* * *

Damon stayed in bed for awhile after getting off the phone with Caroline, his mind racing. There was so much that could go wrong that day. So very much. He was going to have to involve Rebekah, for one thing, and who knew how that was going to go. Damon had given up trying to predict how an Original would respond to anything. He would give Caroline her four hours, but he was wondering if he should re-assemble everyone right after school. Oh, the perils of relying on children with a school schedule to get anything done.

Damon felt a small moment of panic when he heard the front door slam, and Stefan's car start up in the driveway. He ran downstairs, pulling on his clothes as he went. Jeremy was heading out the door with a piece of toast in his mouth, and his dog on a leash.

"Where did Katherine and Stefan go?"

"Mmmfhtdhtd," Jeremy replied, mumbling around the toast.

"Seriously, let's try that again," Damon said, rolling his eyes.

Jeremy took the toast out of his mouth. "Sorry. Katherine said something about going into Richmond to buy a dress for prom. I have to walk Nevada before school, you need anything else?"

"Goddamnit, what is it with this town and motherfucking prom?" At Jeremy's startled look, Damon said, "Never mind. No worries."

"Okay. Congrats on being Mayor . . . hey, does that mean I don't need to worry about parking tickets, or getting caught speeding anymore?"

"No, it means you need to be extra worried," Damon responded, reaching down to rub Nevada's neck and scratch behind his ear. "I'm going to circulate your picture and plate numbers amongst all of the deputies and tell them to arrest you on sight, just for being generally annoying. And for never making your bed. Now get out of here."

Damon wasn't quite sure how he felt about Katherine and Stefan going to prom. It shouldn't matter, since they weren't going to try and nab Katherine until after prom anyway. And if she was actually at prom, that meant there would many eyes on her to make sure she didn't bolt again. So he was going to let it slide, even though he was annoyed at her for imitating Elena at prom on principle.

It was time to tackle his newest responsibility. Mayor Salvatore. He couldn't help but laugh every time he said it, even inside his head. He didn't officially take office until the swearing in ceremony on Tuesday, but he'd promised Carol he would get a head start on learning the ropes.

Damon walked into town hall feeling pretty good about the upcoming day. The building was a bit empty, since it was the Friday before Memorial Day weekend, and his footsteps rang in the hallways. Carol greeted him at the door to her office, soon to be his, with a smile and a hug.

"Oh, Damon. You have no idea how relieved I am about how this all worked out."

"I do know, Carol," Damon responded. "But don't think that you are off the hook, you know. I'm going to be on the phone with you every day with so many petty problems and questions that you are going to want to block my calls. You'll have to walk me through just about everything."

"It'll be my pleasure." She indicated her office with her head. "The Sheriff is already here, let's get started."

During the course of many meetings, Damon's enthusiasm began to wane. So many stupid problems. Little things, like the fact that teenage hooligans kept knocking the heads off the parking meters on Main St. and stealing the quarters. Or that Mr. Cuddy on Littlewater Road had filed over 300 complaints with the town about his neighbor's dog shitting in his yard. Or that the town was going to have a hard time paying the cost-of-living raises that the firemen wanted this year, because they had spent so much money training police deputies on how to handle vampire problems. That right there was a dumb expense, and made Damon shake his head.

First off, he'd find out from Jeremy and Matt which of their moronic classmates were knocking the meters to flinders, and he'd compel them to stop it. Well, after the vervain was no longer in the town's water supply. He made a mental note to make sure the water supply was vervain free as soon as possible. Then he was going to let Stefan eat Mr. Cuddy's neighbor's dog. And hell, he would just pay the firemens' wage increase himself. But spending $20,000 to train incredibly inept deputies to take down vampires, which they hadn't a hope in hell of ever doing? Totally ridiculous. That was a line item he was going to strike as soon as Tuesday rolled around.

He kept taking notes and nodding his head, and saying, "Sure, got it, not a problem," but his mind was still half on what was going to go down later that night. He couldn't help it, he was just worried. So many things could go wrong.

* * *

Damon called Rebekah during a lunch break. He paced around the entryway to town hall as he waited for her to pick up, giving a quick smile to a couple of civil servants who were viewing him with curiosity. No surprise that they were curious. He knew he was the hottest (soon-to-be-officially) mayor Mystic Falls had ever seen.

"Hello, Damon."

"Need a favor from you, my favorite blonde girl." He kept his voice too low for any passersby to overhear.

"Really? Your favorite? I even outrank Caroline?"

"Of course. Caroline doesn't let me do that _thing_ you let me do. That automatically makes you my favorite."

"I don't let you do that anymore, Damon."

"Semantics. Anyway, do you want to help me, or not?"

"I suppose so, if I must. Although, it's your fault, Mayor Salvatore, that Klaus is so irritable today. He's going to be hell to live with until he gets over that dumb election." Rebekah sighed. "What do you need?'

"I need you to help keep Stefan occupied tonight while me, Caroline, and Tyler take down Katherine and shove her into a vampire trap inside a tomb."

"I feel like I've been missing something."

"Well, you kinda have been. Short version, Katherine put a nasty dark spell on Stefan to make him think he's in love with her. We need to stash her somewhere until the vervain leaves her system, and then you can compel her to tell us how to break that spell. Simple, right?"

"That complete and utter bitch."

"I know it breaks your tender heart to see her misuse Stefan like that. So, we can count on you?"

"Wouldn't it be better if I handle Katherine, while you and your little friends handle Stefan? She's only five hundred years old. I can take her down without a whimper, you know."

"Actually, you are right. That is a better plan." Damon hesitated, "So . . .?"

Rebekah sighed again. "Yes, Damon. It would be my pleasure to put Katherine inside a dark hole somewhere. And this doesn't surprise me in the least, you know. She's so trashy. I never could figure out what you Salvatores saw in her."

"Believe me, I've been wondering that myself lately. Okay, keep your phone on and I will text you later when it's all about to go down."

"We aren't going to do this tonight, Damon. It's _prom. _It'll have to be tomorrow._"_

Damon choked back a laugh. "Really, it's prom tonight? I had no fucking idea. I'm not going to ruin your prom, Rebekah, but I would like to handle Katherine soon _after_ prom, if that is okay by you."

Rebekah sighed, again. "Fine. But I'm not messing up my dress or my hair until long after all of the pictures have been taken."

"It's a deal, Blondie Becks. And if you get bored with your quarterback's dreamy blue eyes, hit me up for a dance tonight."

"Oh, Damon. You are way too old for _prom_. That's just disturbing."


	22. Chapter 22

AN: Entering the home stretch, folks! Only two more chapters after this one. Thanks again for all of the reviews, they totally brighten my day. And a special shout out to certain gals from a certain place who have stuck with me for over a decade - you know who you are. And to my favorite two stalkers . . . er, lurkers who followed me from place to place.

But especially, to Rebecca and Robin - Yeah, I only wrote this to give y'all something to read during hiatus, and if I write another one, it'll be all your fault.

* * *

Damon was sitting in his very last meeting of the day, a discussion about refurbishing the fire hydrants along Main Street, when he received a text from Elijah.

He excused himself, and called Elijah from the hallway outside of the mayor's office.

"What do you mean you can't find her?"

"I'm sure it's nothing to be concerned about, Damon. Kol called me, and said that Elena got a bit upset this morning, and then took off. She's most likely just somewhere on the property, dealing with her emotions."

"Did you already have someone check the old barn?"

"Yes, Kol went there first. Right now, he's gone to see if she went to demolish the caretaker's cottage."

"I hope there's not an actual caretaker inside."

"Luckily, no. So I take it that you have not heard from her today?"

"No, not at all. Not since last night. And before you ask, we didn't have an upsetting conversation at all. How long has it been since anyone saw her?"

"Several hours. Kol heard her destroying the veranda this morning. He went downstairs, and she threw him into a pergola, staking him on a large beam. It took awhile for him to recover. Our friend Bartholomew was asleep in the guest house, and did not realize anything had happened. I'm returning from Hong Kong today, so I should be back in the States in about 20 hours."

"You might want to tell Kol to also check the lake. There's one on the property, right? With a waterfall?"

"Yes."

"He'll want to go down deep. Maybe she was finally able to dig a hole that could hold her."

* * *

Damon excused himself from the meeting, and headed home. He had just half an hour before he needed to be at the high school for his official prom duties, and he also wanted to do a quick conference call with Caroline, Rebekah and Bonnie to make sure everything was a still a go for Operation She-Devil right after prom. He tried all of them by phone, but nobody answered. He'd completely forgotten that they would probably be taking pictures with their escorts before prom.

Damon was almost back to the boarding house when Elijah called him again.

"It looks like she took one of the Range Rovers, Damon. Probably just went for a long drive, but I thought I would mention it in case she decides to head to Virginia. She did not take any of her credit cards, though, so it doesn't seem likely."

"She doesn't need credit cards. She's a fucking vampire."

"True. I'm just about to board my plane . . . I'm going to text you Kol's phone number. Please do let him know if you hear from her."

"Can do," Damon responded. "Do you think he could be bothered to return the favor?"

"I will insist that he do so." Elijah ended the call, and Damon pulled into his driveway, thinking hard. If Elena was heading to Mystic Falls, then screw prom. Screw Operation She-Devil.

The front door was wide open, and there were wet footprints leading to, and then up the stairs. The house, however, was quiet. Damon followed the footsteps upstairs, where they led straight to the room that he had created for Elena.

Damon paused in the doorway.

"Hey you."

"Damon." Elena was on the bed, holding her teddy bear, her wet clothes and hair dripping onto the bedspread. She pushed long strands of wet hair off her face.

"Did you swim here from the Berkshires?"

Elena looked at him steadily. "I think I did a bad thing, Damon."

Damon felt his heart sink to his stomach. "Really."

"Yes."

Damon asked, "How did you get inside?"

"Matt was here, and let me in."

Damon swallowed heavily. "Is he . . . did you -"

"I didn't kill him, Damon. He's fine. Not even a scratch. Might have scared him a bit, though. He took off in quite a hurry."

"Well, maybe he was just late to pick up his date. It happens to be prom tonight, you know."

"Doubtful. I'd already been here earlier and stole his truck."

Damon sat down next to her on the bed, and repeated carefully, "You . . . stole . . . Matt's truck."

"Yes. When I was at the house about an hour ago."

"I'm really not understanding you, Elena. You came to the house, and stole Matt's truck . . . and what did you do with it?"

"Drove it off Wickery Bridge."

Damon winced. "May I ask why?"

Elena sighed. "Poetic justice."

"You want to add some clarifiers to that statement?"

Elena took a deep breath. "I went to the lake underneath Wickery Bridge. I dug a deep hole in the bottom of the lake. Then I came here, and I stole Matt's truck. I went to Rebekah's house. She thought I was Matt coming to pick her up. I snapped her neck, and put her in the back of the truck. I drove her off the bridge. Then I put her in the hole, and I put the truck on top of her. I shot her full of vervain before I put her into the truck, so it'll be a long time before she can get out of the lake."

"Well." Damon wasn't sure what to say to that.

Elena shook her head. "Now that I think about it, I don't feel bad at all."

"I'm not saying that Rebekah doesn't deserve to be driven off Wickery Bridge, and it is, after all, in line with how you Mikaelsons treat each other . . . but don't you think that was a lousy thing to do to Matt?"

Elena smiled just a little bit. "I do feel bad for poor Matt."

"And what about me? I had to take him to three different lots before we found that damn truck."

"Sorry, Damon."

"And then you came back here, and Matt let you in?"

"Yes. He thought I was Katherine, I think. Said something like, 'why aren't you inside getting ready for prom', and apparently that was enough to get me over the threshold. Is Katherine going to prom as me?"

"That seems to be the plan."

"Oh. I'm not sure that I like that. Anyway, he let me in, and I . . . well, I was a little hungry. I went for him, and he took off. Either he's gotten faster, or my heart wasn't really into the idea of eating him."

"Maybe a little bit of both?"

"Maybe." She looked around, "I like this room. I assume it was your idea. Did you know there's a dog downstairs?"

"Yes." Damon cleared his throat. "So . . . don't you think we should go and pull Rebekah out of the lake now?"

Elena met his eyes. "No. She's not learned her lesson yet."

"Okay," Damon said. "Fair enough. What lesson is that, exactly? She killed you months ago, so-?"

"Spoke to Caroline this morning. Learned a couple of things. Things that she thought I already knew." Elena looked at him. "Congratulations, by the way, Mayor Salvatore."

Damon thought he knew where this was heading, and he was suddenly keenly aware that Elena was about three times as strong as he was. Maybe four. "And . . . what what was the other thing?"

"That I'm a bit of an idiot. You were sleeping with Rebekah a whole month, Damon?"

"About that long," Damon answered, very uncomfortable. "Am I the next to go into the lake?"

Elena shook her head. "I'm not really mad at you, Damon. You weren't my boyfriend."

"Oh," Damon said, feeling a bit deflated. He'd almost have preferred being thrown into the hole in the lake after all.

"And I know it didn't mean anything to you. You are in love with me. No, this is between me and Rebekah. She should have known better. And I owed it to her, anyway." Elena shrugged."This is family business."

"Well, I honestly don't know what to say, Elena." He stood up and grabbed a towel from the attached bathroom. He handed it to her, and she began to towel off her hair. "I'm both impressed and a little bit terrified at the same time."

Elena stopped toweling her hair long enough to give him a look. "Just as long as we are clear that you aren't going to sleep with her again."

"Clear as crystal," Damon said. He took the towel from her, and started to dry her hair himself. "You must have driven like a fiend to get here from Massachusetts. Any casualties along the way we need to deal with?"

"Not a single one. There's a lady at a gas station in Maryland with a sore neck and a hole in her memory. And three state troopers who tried to pull me over for speeding with a similar problem."

"Did you already call Elijah?"

"No, was he worried?"

"He and Kol both were. Elijah is on a plane, actually, but you should call Kol."

"I don't care about Kol. He's not actually worried about me anyway, he's just freaking out that Elijah will compel someone to dagger him for letting me leave the house by myself."

"He didn't have a choice. You temporarily killed him."

"Good. I'm two for zero with Mikaelsons today. I owed him that for Denver, anyway. And for being a jerk last night. For being a jerk his entire existence, actually."

Damon's phone buzzed, and he pulled it out. Caroline was texting him, wondering why he wasn't at prom to chaperone.

"You need to be somewhere?"

"Prom, actually, but screw it. Do you have any dry clothes here?"

Elena shook her head, and stood up. "No, but I'll just take some from Katherine. I assume her stuff is in Stefan's room? At least there's some benefit to being a doppelganger."

Damon followed her into Stefan's room, and watched her going through Katherine's clothes in the closet. "Ugh," Elena said. "We really don't have the same taste at all. Except in men."

Damon sent a quick text to Caroline, and then one to Kol. He looked up at her, as she shimmied out of her wet shirt and pants.

"Can you see if you can find a bra and some underwear in the dresser?"

"If I absolutely have to." Damon pulled a bra and a lacy thong out of the dresser and tossed it to her. "Not your style, but at least it's dry."

"Yeah. Thanks." She made a face at the thong, but put it on anyway. "I probably just should have gone into the lake naked, but it didn't occur to me."

"That's an interesting visual." Damon went over to the closet and pulled out a deep blue dress. He tossed that at her, as well. "Wear this. I've got something for it."

He vamp sped into Elena's room and found a book and a small box, and then returned to Stefan's.

"Early birthday presents," he said, putting the book on the bed, and handing the box to her. "This first."

Elena finished fastening the dress on, and took the box from him. Opening it and looking inside, Elena said, "Wow. Well, you did promise me."

"That's right. The second in your line of blue jewelry."

Elena pulled the locket from the box by its long silver chain. "It matches my ring exactly. The same crest, the same 'E'." She carefully pried the locket open. "Oh, God. Damon, how?"

Inside the locket were two tiny pictures. Miranda and Grayson.

"Your teddy wasn't the only thing I managed to salvage from the rubble of your old house. Found some pictures, and some other things. The lapis lazuli is actually from Isobel's necklace. I found pieces of it underneath what was left of your old bed. Everything I found is in your room here, except for the stuff Jeremy wanted for his." He paused, and then said, "You ready to talk to him? Maybe? He's working at the Grill tonight. But he'll be back in later."

"I don't know. Maybe. I'm sure he is terrified of me. We would have to do it outside just to make sure I don't eat him. Again. I don't really want to see that look of fear on his face, though."

Damon shrugged. "He'll get over it. Anyway, you can think it over. So Bonnie spelled your locket, and now you have a backup for your ring."

"You wanted to remind me that I wasn't a Mikaelson." She turned around and held up her hair so he could fasten the locket around her neck.

"Or at least, not only a Mikaelson. You belong to us, and you belong to Jeremy, too." His hands lingered for a second on her neck.

"Thank you. I need to be reminded of that sometimes. And what is this?" she asked, indicating the book he had brought with him.

He picked it up from the bed and handed it to her. "It's not finished."

She opened it, and began to run her finger down the lists of names, ages and places. "You've put some real work into it."

Damon cleared his throat. "Yeah, well. Only up to 1886, I'm afraid. Got a long way to go."

Elena looked up at him with a smile. "This has got to be the most romantic thing anyone has ever done for me."

"Your standards for romance are pretty low, then," Damon said. "Who knew that a list of dead people would make you go all starry eyed?"

"A book makes more sense than a closet wall. I won't be able to take that wall with me anywhere that I go."

"You know you take them with you anyway. You don't need any concrete reminders. Speaking of books, though, I did try to find your diary, but without any success."

"I had it with me. It was one of the first things I destroyed, actually." Elena put Damon's book of names back down on the bed, and turned towards him. "I don't need one anymore. I'll just write what I'm thinking in letters to you."

"I'm entirely okay with that idea."

Elena wriggled uncomfortably. "You know what? It's a little gross wearing Katherine's underwear, now that I think about it."

"Speaking of Katherine, and don't take this the wrong way, but I kind of had a plan for taking her down tonight, and it sort of involved Rebekah, and you've definitely ruined it." He shrugged. "Not that I don't appreciate how vindictive and creative you have been tonight, and Lord knows, it turns me on a whole lot - but re-adjusting at this point? A little bit tricky."

"What kind of plan? And why?"

"Well . . ." Damon hesitated. He wasn't sure just how much of the story Elena could handle emotionally. "Maybe we should have this discussion outside, actually. I don't really want to have contractors underfoot all the time again."

Elena smiled. "I'm fine, you know. Something about burying Rebekah underground and pinning her there with a two ton truck that has made me feel very peaceful." She picked up a comb and a clip from a side table, and started to comb out her wet hair.

"I can see that. It's kind of eerie. Well, if you are sure, then I'll tell you the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Katherine had a witch put a spell on Stefan that made him think he was in love with her. We're also pretty sure she's the one who has been hiding the silver stake. The plan was to have Rebekah throw Katherine into a vampire trap in the tomb under Fell's Church, wait for the vervain to leave her system, and then compel her to help us free Stefan, and to give up the stake." He paused. "I feel like I have been saying that same paragraph a hundred times a day lately."

"Huh." Elena twisted up her hair and secured it on top of her head. "For some reason, none of that sounds like Katherine. I can totally see her taking the stake and hiding it, but a love spell? That doesn't seem right."

"I know. That's why it took me awhile to put the pieces together."

"Wow, you really weren't big on sharing with me the things going on back in Mystic Falls." She shot him a look. "I'm a little hurt, Damon. I told you everything, Mayor Salvatore."

"Yeah, well, I'm not the one who goes all wrecking ball when things get heavy. Didn't think you needed any extra burdens."

"Okay, since I'm the one who screwed things up, let's go put your plan in motion now, then. Except for being able to compel other vampires, there's not really anything Rebekah can do that I can't, you know. And if I can take down two Mikaelsons in a row, than Katherine should be a snap." Elena gave him a small smile, and then reached out and took his hand in hers. "So, Damon - would you like to be my date for prom?"

* * *

Damon filled her in on all the details while they were driving to the high school in the Camaro. "And that's why we can't risk Klaus finding out about the stake. I didn't even tell Rebekah for fear that she would let it slip to him. He's far too likely to throw a tantrum, and we could end up with a dead Stefan. We know nothing about how this spell works, so we can't take any chances."

Elena was thoughtful. She was holding his free hand in her lap, between both of hers. "Why do you think she did it? Stefan and I were obviously finished as a couple. He was in love with her before, there was no reason to think he couldn't fall in love with her again."

"I think I understand." Damon responded, his eyes on the road. "Not that I want to draw comparisons between me and Katherine, but there have been moments in the past two years when I would have given anything, done anything to have you be mine. So many times when I would be listening to you and Stefan in bed in his room late at night, and I felt like my heart was being sucked right out of my chest. Like giant knives were slicing open every vein. I used to think about staking him, you know. There were nights when I would have staked my own brother and buried him in the ground just to take his place in that bed with you."

Elena was quiet. "I didn't know."

"Of course you didn't."

"I would never have been that cruel, if I had known. We would never have done those things in the house with you there."

"I know you wouldn't have. But it's an ache I still carry with me. That jealousy, and all that hurt. If Katherine saw a way to claim Stefan, and she was equally as desperate as me, then-"

"Yeah," Elena said. "I think I get it." She tightened her grip on his hand. "You'll never have to hurt like that again, you know. Not because of me."

* * *

Damon and Elena walked up to the school, and he paused near the door. "This isn't the best idea. 'Elena' is already inside there. Why don't you wait in the car? I'll lure her out to the parking lot, and then we can handle it out here. Or we could just both get back in the car and make out for awhile. I promised Caroline I would wait until after prom anyway. And you and I are so overdue for some making out."

Elena cocked her head at him. "I'm a little tired of Katherine living my life. She doesn't get to do it anymore." She let go of his hand, and walked into the school. Damon followed behind her, shooting glances at the kids in the hallway. Elena ignored everyone and went straight to the gym.

She pushed the doors to the gym open, and her eyes grew wide. "Those are some _really _big phones. And really pink, too."

"Rebekah's idea. Kind of funny that she's missing yet another school dance," Damon said, he put a hand on her arm, "Hey, this could get really bad, really fast, and there are a _lot _of people in here-"

"Oh, there they are." Elena pulled away from him, walked through the crowd to where Katherine and Stefan were swaying to the music, and tapped Katherine on the shoulder.

Katherine turned her head, and said in surprise, "Elena." Her mouth dropped open, but she recovered quickly. "Well, this is a bit awkward."

"Hello, Katherine," Elena said, with a smile. Damon came quickly up behind Stefan, not quite sure where Elena was going with this maneuver.

Elena reached out, and snapped Katherine's neck in a single move.

"Oh, fuck," Damon said, looking at Katherine's body on the floor in shock. He grabbed Stefan, as Stefan also slumped to the ground.

Elena picked Katherine up, and threw her over one shoulder. "Okay, so what's next?"


	23. Chapter 23

AN: If anyone is interested, you can contact me for a playlist for this fic.

* * *

Caroline came running up to Damon and Elena, with Tyler following close behind. "What the hell?" Caroline looked between Katherine and Elena. "Elena? What the _fuck_?"

Elena shifted Katherine into a more secure position on her shoulder. "Hey, Caroline. Sorry about prom."

"Sorry? _Sorry_?" Caroline glanced at Damon, who was still propping up Stefan.

"Could use a little help here," Damon said, gritting his teeth. He shoved Stefan into Tyler's arms, and then pulled Elena and her doppelganger burden behind the nearest giant pink phone. Caroline followed them.

"Not good, guys, this is not good. What happened to _after _prom, Damon?"

"Ask Elena, she's running the show now."

Elena shrugged. "I didn't want to wait. I'm a little impatient to have a chat with Katherine."

Caroline threw up her hands, as Tyler joined them behind the phone with Stefan's body. "Unbelievable! At least fifteen people just saw Elena snap 'Elena's' neck! And where's Rebekah?"

"Bottom of the lake. Long story. I'm going to tell you someday and you are going to laugh and laugh. But right now, you and Tyler should probably go out and start compelling the witnesses," Elena said. She peered around the back of the phone. "Yeah, they are pretty freaked out. Melody Fell looks like her eyes are going to pop out of her skull."

"She always looks like that," Damon said, as he kneeled down beside his brother.

"I can't!" Caroline turned to Damon. "The vervain in the water system, remember?"

"Then tell them a believable story, Caroline. Tell them Elena has an identical cousin who likes to get up to wacky hijinks. Tell them that was Jeremy in an Elena costume playing a prank. I don't care. Just anything. And don't worry about prom. I'll throw you a regular old cotillion this summer to make up for it." Damon reached out and touched Stefan's neck. He was out cold.

"Well, as much as I might be appalled by your methodology, Elena, that little move did teach us something important about the spell. And it means we definitely can't kill Katherine permanently," Damon said, looking up. "Tyler, do you mind taking Stefan home, and sticking him into the cellar? Lock him up, because we have no idea what he's going to be like when he comes to. Assuming that he comes to." He stood up, looked at Elena and inclined his head towards a side door. "C'mon, Smasher. Let's get your evil twin into a tomb."

* * *

Katherine's prom dress was off-white silk, with lots and lots of tiny ruffles all down the long, full skirt. "So pretty," Elena said, stroking the ruffles as she carried Katherine through the woods towards the ruins of Fell's Church. "I expected something more Maleficenty, to be honest. But she's practically angelic."

"How did you even handle that? There were a couple of hundred kids in that gym, and you didn't try to feed on any of them."

"Huh," Elena said thoughtfully. "That didn't even occur to me. I wasn't even tempted, to be honest. I guess I was just so focused on the task at hand that I wasn't thinking about the blood. I was only thinking about the joy of snapping Katherine's neck. You think this means something?"

"I don't know, Elena. You say you can't be fixed, but darling, there's a definite change in you today."

Elena laughed, and it was a happy sound. "Maybe it has something to do with burying Rebekah in the lake. And the super long drive here, where I did a whole lot of thinking. I should drive down here once a week to bury her in the lake again and again. I'll just tell Elijah it's a necessary part of my new routine."

"She's going to be pissed, you know. She's going to come after you."

"Let her come. Rebekah doesn't get to kill me twice." She shifted Katherine again.

"You sure you don't want me to carry her?" Damon offered, as he brushed branches aside for her.

"She weighs nothing to me," Elena said. "Like carrying a toothpick. Oh, here we are."

"It might take me awhile to become accustomed to an Elena so much stronger than me."

"Well, good thing we have eternity, then." They walked down the stone stairs, Elena being careful in her borrowed heels. "It's weird, I know we are doppelgangers, but I swear that her shoes are too big for me."

"She needs just that little bit of extra room to store the extra evil."

"Funny."

When they reached the bottom of the stairs, Damon pulled a flashlight out of his pocket. "All the comforts of home," he said, indicating a chair, blanket, cooler, and a lantern. "Those are for anyone who wants to visit her, not for her."

Elena casually tossed Katherine inside the tomb, and then gave a little jump when Katherine bounced off the emptiness and onto the floor. "What the-"

"Oh yeah," Damon said. "Bonnie made it a smaller trap. We learned our lesson last year when Katherine hid the moonstone way in the back."

"Pretty smart. I hate doing that to that lovely dress, though."

"The dress will get over it."

Elena sighed, and looked around the tomb. "I know we are being flippant, but this is a pretty monumentous occasion for me, you know. After everything that woman has put me through, what I just did at prom will rate as one of the most satisfying moments of my existence. All in all, I'm having that kind of day. Kol, Rebekah, Katherine. The only thing that could make this day _more_ satisfying is if Klaus would volunteer to let me snap _his_ neck."

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves, little girl. A couple of garden variety Originals and a mere 500 year old vamp doesn't really stack up against Klaus the Original Hybrid Mutant Freak."

"Oh, I know. But it's something I'd like to put to the test someday. Maybe at the next family dinner, when he rolls his eyes at me and complains that I've eaten all of the parfait."

"Listen to you, my brave warrior queen." He came over to her, and wrapped her in his arms. She settled in quite comfortably, putting her hands on his neck. He added, "I think I know what could make your day a _little_ more satisfying."

Elena smiled up at him, her eyes shining in the dark. "Oh, yeah? And what is that?"

"This."

As they began to kiss, Damon was more than just a little happy to note that Elena's need for him was as great there in the tomb as it had been when she was a human in Denver. They came together with a rush and a fierceness, as he backed her up against the wall of the tomb. The wall began to crumble behind her. He loved the fact that he didn't have to be gentle with her anymore. She grabbed at him so hard that he had to wince, but it was a good kind of pain. The kind of pain he could get used to. She wrapped her leg around him, and he slid a hand up inside her dress. Damon was just about to lay Elena down on the dirt floor, when they both heard a cough beside them. Pausing, Damon raised his head from Elena's neck, and looked in Katherine's direction. "Oh, great. An audience."

"Well, you do put on quite a show." Katherine stood up and stretched her neck, turning it one way and then the other. "Ouch, by the way." She reached out her hands, and felt the edges of her invisible prison. "And this just sucks."

"Doesn't it, though," Damon said, as he and Elena straightened up, and moved away from the wall. Elena stayed close to his body, her hand still entwined in his hair, his arm around her waist. "Oh, wait. It doesn't suck for the two of us at all. Not even a little bit."

Katherine looked around the tomb, her gaze sharp. "Where is Stefan?"

"He's safe at home, in a comfy cellar. Presumably, he should be waking up right now, too."

"Well," Katherine said. "I suppose you have a plan. I'm assuming that you haven't shoved me in here for my health. So let's get on with whatever it is, so that it can fail epically."

Elena looked up at Damon, and said, "Damon, my love, do you mind leaving Katherine and me alone? I would like to talk to her for awhile."

"If you are going to call me 'my love', then I'll do anything for you at all. I'll just go out and lasso the moon for you, shall I?" He kissed the tip of her nose, and then released her. Stepping back, he nodded towards the cooler on the floor. "Blood in there, by the way. B pos, even."

She smiled her thanks, as he went up the stairs.

Damon paused at the very top, though. He had a choice to make. He could go home and check on his brother. He could go to the lake and rescue his ex-lover. Or he could sit down on the stairs and stay right there and eavesdrop. Well, that was an easy decision.

From his seat at the top of the steps, he sent out two texts. One to Caroline, to ask about Stefan. And one to Klaus, to let him know where his sister was. Elena probably wouldn't like it, but Damon didn't feel it was quite fair to leave Rebekah trapped under a truck at the bottom of the lake the entire night. Caroline responded quickly, saying that Stefan had just woken up, and seemed very dazed. Not violent, though, which was a huge relief. Oh, and Caroline hoped Damon was proud of himself for helping to ruin her prom.

Klaus also responded, with a terse 'thanks', and that was all.

And now Damon was ready to listen to the drama unfolding below him.

* * *

"So Damon is now your love, eh?" Katherine said. "My, how things change in a year."

"Just wanted to make sure you knew where things stood, Katherine. I have recently discovered that I have jealousy issues, so I feel the need to mark my territory clearly," Elena responded. Damon could hear the sound of the cooler being opened.

"That's not going to work, you know. I'm nowhere near starving enough to trade you information for blood like the last time."

"Oh, this isn't for you. It's for me. So I guess you are right, a lot has changed in a year. You may as well sit. You're going to be down here a good long while."

He could hear both of them sit down, Elena on the chair, and Katherine on the floor.

"You seemed a lot more meek when I was babysitting you after your baby eating incident. I'm surprised to see that you even have claws."

"I have claws, Katherine. I have claws, I have teeth. I have anger like you cannot imagine. I could snap you in half using one hand and not even blink while doing it. I could pull this tomb down around us in a split second. I'm no longer the damsel in everlasting distress, and I _will_ be respected."

There was silence, and then Damon heard Katherine say, "You're still just a lost little girl, you know."

"Yes. And so are you."


	24. Chapter 24

AN: Final chapter! So here's the deal . . . I wasn't _quite_ ready to give up these characters, so there will be an shortish epilogue after this chapter. Probably post that tomorrow. Feel free to skip it if you like, I'm sure it'll be pretty cheesy. The way epilogues always are - looking at you, JKR.

* * *

"You're projecting, my dear descendant."

"Am I? We were both turned too young, weren't we? And you without a real home for so long. Too long. Out there, scared and on the run for so many lifetimes."

"Scared? You over state the case. Running has made me strong, you know. Everything I have done to survive has made me strong. I don't need a home. Why would I? I don't _need_ anything."

"So you say, but I don't believe you. So tough, so strong, but when it comes right down to it, everyone needs a home. And don't think any of _this_ is lost on me."

"What, this dress? Please. It means nothing."

"It's exactly what I would have picked out to wear to prom. And you . . . a lover and a mother before you were a vampire, and never a bride. A hope unfulfilled, Katherine? Something you dreamed about all those lonely centuries?"

"I chose this dress because I was pretending to be you, and you have lame taste. You'll notice that I have been far too polite to mention the fact that you are wearing _my_ clothes."

"And yet there you were tonight at a high school prom like any teenage girl, in bridal white, on the arm of the man you have loved for so long, who was finally loving you in return. Or should I say, forced to love you in return."

"Oh, and here we come to the heart of things."

"You were too impatient. Was that it? Didn't want to put the work in? Wanted a shortcut to making your dreams come true?" There was a pause, and Damon heard Elena lean forward in her chair. "Or was it just that you didn't think you were _worth_ loving after everything you had done, Katherine? Every dark thing you had become?"

"And _you_ are projecting again. Your insecurities are not mine, Elena. We share a face and the same taste in men, but that is all."

"It must have been daunting, given your past and everything, to even consider rebuilding something with Stefan. How tempting to just wipe the slate clean with magic. But I don't understand why you thought it would be the least bit satisfying to do it this way. With a Stefan that isn't even Stefan. If you _really_ loved him-"

"_If_?" Katherine laughed harshly. "You're a child and you think like a child. I've loved that man for over a century. I loved him from a distance with _no hope._ None. I watched him slaughter his way through this world for decades. His pain was my pain. Every time he went off the rails, I _felt _it. I felt all of his kills, because I knew what they would come to mean to him. The pain and the sorrow etched on his face year after year. I walked through Monterey after he made the streets run with blood, Elena. You think you have done monstrous things? Nothing you have seen or done can compare to that night of horrors. And then I had to watch that bitch Lexi as she _ruined_ him again and again, always knowing that I was _helpless. _The guilt she laid on him until he could barely stand up straight beneath it all. You really think _any_ of this was about making him love me? That's not it at all. You understand nothing."

"You were trying to fix him. To save him," Elena said, softly.

"That's right, and I did. _I_ fixed him. A hundred and forty odd years, and nobody else was able to do it. So I did it. I solve problems, while the rest of you dither about your feelings and worry about violating each other's free will."

"You sacrificed the man you really loved, though. Because he isn't that man anymore. Not like this."

"And what do you know about who Stefan really is? You only know Stefan the repressed brooder, the one with all those years of guilt, with his personality formed through his struggles. I made him the man he could have been if he had never had any of those struggles to begin with. He's _free_ now, Elena. The blood does not control him."

"But he's not. You only replaced his fixation on blood with a fixation on you. It's just another kind of prison."

"You think I wanted it to be like this? You think I wanted Stefan to be this compliant creature, my lap dog? But there was no choice. And this _worked_."

"There's always a choice, Katherine. But this - you took away all of _his_ choices. I know Stefan, and he wouldn't have wanted this."

"Wouldn't he? When I walked into that bar in Chicago, there were at least twenty people piled in pieces on the floor, and not one of them was still moving. Stefan was trying to stack them back together on the bar stools. He was crying, and putting the bodies back together. I followed him around Chicago for four days, cleaning up his messes, burying his bodies, compelling the witnesses. He barely even noticed me, he was so lost in a blood haze. And when he _finally_ did notice me, you know what he said? He said, 'help me. I'm so lost, please help me'. So I did. I took him to my friends, and we spent two days looking through every grimoire, every spell. This was the only way, Elena. The only one."

"It was dark magic."

"Yes."

"Damon said the witch spirits were angry with you. What was the balance required?"

"I'm not surprised that they are angry. I went to the honeymoon suite at the Four Seasons, and snatched the first bridal couple that checked in."

"You had to kill two lovers to make the spell work."

"Yes. And it had to be fresh love, the kind where the people still think they have forever to be together." There was a pause. "I'm done talking to you. I have nothing more to say."

"Well, that's a shame, because I'm not going anywhere. And it doesn't matter, you know. The vervain is leaving your system every second, and Elijah is on his way here. He'll make you talk."

"Elijah is coming here?" Damon could hear the fear in Katherine's voice. "When?"

"We could bring Klaus down to the tomb instead, if you prefer." Elena's voice lowered to a whisper. "Damon figured it out. About the silver stake."

"He didn't. You're bluffing."

"I'm really not. The dead witches helped him. They see all, you know. And they seriously don't like you."

There was quiet.

"I'm not sure that I see any advantage to telling you anything more."

Damon could actually hear Elena shrug. "That's fine. We can talk about something else, then. Like, when did you get Matt off the vervain?"

"Oh, Matt. I have such a soft spot for that poor boy. So sweet, and those eyes! I grabbed him and took him away to a motel after the fiasco of Homecoming. None of you even noticed he was gone for three days, that's what wonderful friends you are. He's been reporting to me twice a week since then. If Rebekah hadn't killed you that night a few months ago, I was going to have him bring you to me. And then I was going to kill you myself."

"You've been watching us all this time?"

"Of course. I'm the one who suggested to Stefan that he steal Klaus's coffins. That was a plan we made together. You don't think I would seriously just leave town without taking any precautions? Without making sure I had eyes and ears somewhere?"

"You still weren't able to keep Klaus from being staked."

"No, and that was Damon and Rebekah's fault. I followed Rebekah to the U-Store-It that night, but I was too late, and she and Damon were too ineffectual. Klaus was staked and it was all finished. All those centuries of running for nothing. I sat on a hillside above the unit and waited to die. I was there to hear you and Damon on the phone, saying your good-byes. My poor sweet Damon, left there to die alone. He could have used _some_ kind of comfort at that moment, but you were mealymouthed and wishywashy. You can imagine how happy I was to realize you were dead. It was what you deserved."

"And then you realized that you weren't going to die, and you came down off your hillside and took the stake."

"Did I?"

"Let me make it simple for you. If you tell me how to break the spell, and where to find the stake, I can have Bonnie set you free in the morning. You could be a thousand miles away before Elijah even gets here."

"I ran for five hundred years."

"I know."

"I will not run for five hundred more."

"Well, maybe you don't have to. Maybe we could work things out so that Elijah and Klaus never need to know anything about it at all."

There was silence again. And then, Katherine said, "The vervain cocktail that Stefan drinks every morning. Don't let him drink it tomorrow."

"Why? What's in there? I'll need details."

"Are you sure you want to hear them? Dark magic is never pretty. The spell required Stefan and I to drink the blood of the couple. And then Sylvia ground their bones into a powder, and mixed it with our blood. The powder was bound to the spell by the most powerful magical object that we had in our possession."

"The stake."

"Yes. I put the bonemeal powder into Stefan's vervain. Ever since Klaus compelled him to bite you, he's been faithful about taking it every day. If he stops taking it, in three days, he'll be back to normal." Katherine laughed. "Normal. Funny word for the kind of monster that he is. The people that he will kill now? His ripper victims? They will be on your head."

"There must have been a limited amount of powder made from those bones. It wouldn't have lasted forever."

"No. I had enough for about five years, and then we would have had to do the spell all over again. New bonemeal powder, mixed with our blood, stirred by the stake."

"You were actually planning on killing two people every five years for this spell? Forever?"

"Well, if we are going to get concerned over humans, then how many lives would I have saved? Can you answer that?"

While still listening, Damon sent a text to Caroline asking her to find the vervain mixture in Stefan's room and flush it down the toilet. That would be a good start. He also read a text from Kol, who said he was on his way to Mystic Falls to collect Elena. Damon told him to fuck off. She wasn't a package that needed to be collected. She was his brave Warrior Queen, and she was doing just fine where she was.

"Where's the rest of the powder?"

"In a storage unit in Chicago."

"What about the stake? Is it in Chicago, too?"

"I think I'll need a bigger concession from you before I tell you where that is."

"I don't have to give you anything at all, Katherine. All I have to do is tell my dearest Uncle Klaus that _you_ have been hiding the stake from him all this time. He'll take care of the rest."

More silence, and then Katherine said, "Fine. Since apparently it's share time, the stake is at the Salvatore Boarding House."

"Where?"

"There's a guest room with a lot of heavy dark furniture in it. The bed has tall four posters. I compelled one of Damon's construction crewmen to drill a hole in one of the posters big enough to hide the stake down inside of it. The finial top just screws off."

Oh, fuck, Damon thought. I'm going to kill her. I'm staking her, and then setting her on fire. Then I'm going to stake her again and then I'm going to set her on fire again.

"That bed was a particularly fine example of Thomas Day's best work circa 1847, Katherine. Damon is going to be _pissed._"

"Hmmm . . . do I care? Not particularly. So what happens now?"

"Provided everything you told me is true, I don't see why we have to get Elijah or Klaus involved. You can even hand deliver the stake to Klaus yourself - make up a story, score some major points with him."

"And I suppose someone will go with me to make sure I actually hand it over? Oh, the trust." Another pause. "Stefan may get agitated in the next couple of days if he can't see me. He'll be going through a kind of withdrawal until the powder leaves his system, and I don't want him to hurt himself."

"Well, then he can see you. You can be with him through all of it and take care of him. It's what you should have done, anyway."

"You are seriously going to advise me on how I could have done things differently? Oh, please."

"Katherine, I could have written you a playbook on exactly how you could have built an actual relationship with Stefan. Step by step. All you needed to do was to _love_ him. He didn't need you to fix him. He can't be fixed."

Katherine said, very quietly, "But he can. You haven't been here. You haven't seen the difference in him."

"No," Elena said, gently. "He can't. That was just an illusion. You saw what you wanted to see. The ripper goes deep, Katherine. He's a ripper in his very blood. You can't fix that. At some point, the spell would have failed, and it would have been worse than Chicago, worse than Monterey. You could have saved him another way, though."

"And here's where you hand me some nonsense about how I could have saved him with the power of my love alone? You are naive."

"He asked for your help. Yours. He opened the door to you. He needed someone to be there for him, and you could have been that someone. The one to feel the pain with him, without judgement. To stay by him no matter how many times he pushes you away. To protect him from himself. And yes, on occasion, to clean up the bodies and compel the witnesses. Because sometimes we monsters need that, too." Elena paused, and then continued, "I do believe you when you say you love him, and that you did what you did out of love. I don't care that you think it is nonsense. That love would have been enough to build on, enough to ease the ripper within him. He would have come to need you. And then to accept being needed _by_ you. That was the way you could have saved him, Katherine."

"It would never have worked, Elena. You over simplify all of it, and make it sound too easy."

"Too easy? Are you joking? What I just described is insanely hard, emphasis on _insane_. But I know it works, because it worked for me. I didn't think I could love and be loved, ever again. Not without tearing the entire world apart and destroying myself in the process. Damon showed me the way - he showed me that love is crazy, love is brave in the face of any kind of darkness, and, most important of all, _love brings you peace_. I pushed and pushed . . . I _shoved_ him, but it never mattered. He would not be shaken. You thought he was a fool, when really, you should have been taking notes."

"None of what you say matters now. The powder will wear off, and Stefan will be lost to me. The chance to build anything is gone."

"Oh, I don't know. The Salvatore boys have a pretty good track record when it comes to forgiveness. They've had a lot of practice. Especially when it comes to forgiving actions born out of love. Love is pretty important to both of them, you know, - it's something they are quite expert at," Elena said.

Katherine said nothing, but Damon heard her skirt rustling as she shifted position.

Elena added, "After Stefan detoxes, you might want to go away for awhile and not come home for a couple of weeks, though, to give him a chance to deal with it all. No, I forgot that you messed with Damon's mother's bed. Make that a whole month."

"Home? Don't be ridiculous. This is not my home."

"Oh, Katherine, that's a lie. You say you don't want to run anymore - well, let's face it, this is where you come when you stop running. Mystic Falls is home for you. I don't think it's very nice of you to keep on compelling Matt, though. That's just mean. And I'd greatly appreciate it if you stop pretending to be me. And of course, we'll have to figure out how to deal with what people saw at prom, which was my fault for not knowing about the vervain in the water supply. But hey, Caroline and Damon can make the people in this town believe anything."

"I don't think you speak for the Salvatores and their capacity for forgiveness, Elena. I've burned my bridges here."

"It's not really their decision. That happens to be my house, actually. If people are going to keep on giving me houses, then I guess I call the shots as to who is allowed to live there. And who should I invite in, if not for my family?"

"So confident. You think you own a brave new world now, don't you? Well, your bubble wil burst, Elena. You are a monster now. You are the thing in the dark that causes terror in the hearts of mankind. You will face loss and heartbreak the same as I have, because, Elena? Monsters don't get a happy ending. There will be no white dress and happiness for you."

"Well, you are wrong there."

"Am I?"

"Oh, yes. So wrong. I will never be you, with your losses and your pain. I may not need the white dress, but I _will_ find my happiness, and I don't even have to look very far for it. You spent those centuries alone, but I have him. Damon will be with me always, monster or not, one way or another." Elena raised her voice just slightly, "Isn't that right?"

Damon cleared his throat from the top of the staircase. "Yep. Can do."

"And do you promise not to stake her, if Katherine lives at the boarding house? Remember, she's family, you know. Like, literally for me."

"I guess so," Damon responded. "There's a museum in North Carolina that I will need her to swipe me a new Thomas Day bed from, though. I'll give her directions and rent her a truck."

Katherine was silent, and then she said, "I always knew your compassion would be your undoing, Elena. And it was. It got you killed. But you don't give up, do you? Relentless in your attempts to save everyone."

"My compassion is my strength, Katherine. So is my humanity. I've just had some trouble lately in locating it." Damon heard Elena stand up, and push the chair, lantern and blanket into Katherine's space. Then he heard the cooler of blood slide over as well. "We will be back in the morning with Bonnie. And don't worry. You know we will take care of Stefan until you are able to do so. Good night, Katherine."

"Nighty night, she-devil," Damon called out. "And don't worry, I most likely won't set you on fire while you are trapped down there. Probably not, anyway."

* * *

"Well, I suppose we can go and drag Rebekah out from the lake now, since I'm in such a forgiving mood," Elena commented, when she joined Damon at the top of the stairs.

"As much as I would love to see you get wet again, especially if it means another striptease, there's no need. I already let Klaus know."

Elena gave him a look. "Damon, I didn't tell you to do that."

"I know. But the poor girl missed _prom_, Elena. Do you have any idea of what that means, even a little bit? And she was supposed to go to prom with a dreamboat high school quarterback with pretty blue eyes. She's been punished enough."

Elena sighed, and took his hand. They started to walk through the dark woods together. "I guess so. And her dress was gorgeous, too. I did feel a little bit bad when I ruined it in the water. And then pinned her down with the truck. Oh, that truck . . . I definitely owe Matt a new one."

"I am _not_ taking him truck shopping again. He can't make a decision to save his life. Three damn lots, and I had to compel the sales guy for a decent deal. I'll just order him one online this time. Sending you the bill, Miss Mikaelson of the Park Avenue Mikaelsons."

"Sounds fair." She swung his hand a little.

"Speaking of Miss Mikaelsons, Rebekah might already be out and on the loose, you know. We should keep an eye out for her."

"I'm not worried. I have no worries at all tonight." Elena lifted her face, and looked up at the stars through the trees. "Such a nice night, so many nice stars. The best day I have had in so long, and I'm here with you. Nothing can bring me down, Damon. We can handle anything."

"Yeah, we can," Damon said, smiling at her. "You went soft on Katherine back there, you know. Softer than I would have. You didn't even stake her once."

"Are you seriously complaining? I got results, didn't I?"

"Yes, and I'm suitably impressed. And I'm down with this whole compassionate thing you've got going on. I just don't know that we should trust her enough to let her hang around for the rest of our shared eternity. Do you really want to deal with Katherine forever? Once a she-devil, always a she-devil. Family or not."

"Damon, darling, haven't you been listening? If she misbehaves, let me know and I'll put her down. It's that simple." Elena shrugged.

"Ah. I see. So it's less about trust and more about putting the fear of the Smasher into her, huh? And just what do you want me to do about the fact that ten percent of the Mystic Falls High School graduating class just saw you snap your own neck? What about that, Miss Fix-it?"

"That sounds very much like a mayoral problem to me, Mayor Salvatore." Elena smiled at him. "I almost forgot about your sparkly new political career. That's so crazy to me, but I love it. My Damon, the Mayor. Probably a good thing that I'm not currently living with you, isn't it? What a scandal that would be. The new Mayor shacking up with his brother's ex girlfriend, the high school teenage drop out."

"Prep school attendee, actually. Nobody in town would have believed that Elena Gilbert dropped out of school." Damon stroked his chin thoughtfully. "I guess I can just have Caroline start a rumor that someone put LSD in the punch bowl. That would explain the collective hallucination."

"Prep school, huh? Nice story. And off and on throughout the upcoming year, I can visit from 'college'. We'll have to pick a good school to say that I'm at - but one that's fairly obscure. You still have to figure out how to explain who Katherine is, though, because I refuse to let her go around town as me anymore. I don't think LSD in the punch bowl is going to cut it once she starts parading around Main Street. Especially not on the same weekends that I am visiting."

Damon stopped suddenly, and she stopped beside him. "So you're not back home for good? I did wonder."

Elena shook her head, and brought her free hand up to his neck. "Not yet. I can't. I'll have to be your long distance mistress for awhile. We can keep the really scandalous doings for when you visit me in the Berkshires at our love nest." She smiled at him, and gave him a little wink. "And then, someone can send an anonymous tip to the newspapers, and we can release a sex tape. Could get you elected president someday, if we create a big enough noise about it."

Damon laughed, she dropped her hand, and they resumed walking. "Well, that is the only reason why I got into politics, you know. So I could get myself embroiled in a major sex scandal. It was on my bucket list for eternity."

"Good. Glad that I can help make your dreams come true."

"Oh, my dearest girl. You have no idea."

"I think I have _some_ idea. After all, a night like this has been one of my dreams for awhile, too." She nudged him with her shoulder. "Oh, and by the way, I do know about Bonnie's herbs."

"Oh. You do?"

"Yes, yet another thing Caroline let slip this morning. She said that she was worried Jamie wouldn't be ready for prom in time for the before prom pictures, because Bonnie was going to make him mow the Bennett yard today to get more grass clippings to send to me. I'm assuming that there's nothing particularly magical or soothing about grass clippings chopped up in a jar."

"Not so much, no. There's no such thing as Vampire Prozac, I'm afraid."

"Well, that's not true. I had a long drive here, you know. And one of the things I realized was that so many of the times I was able to get a handle on my emotions wasn't because of the so-called medicine. It was all you, you, you. Even just thinking about you helped to calm me down. I didn't have to focus on what I had lost, only on what I still _had. _And I still had you, and you are enough. You are everything. You are my Vampire Prozac, Damon."

"That's good. Because you are my everything, too, you know. It's nice to finally be on the same page." Raising an eyebrow, Damon said, "I guess that means you need a regular dose of me, though."

Elena laughed. "I guess so. As regular as we can manage." She added, "And I will come back home to you someday. For good."

"I know you will. I wasn't sure until today, but now I know you will."

Elena was quiet, and then she said, "Even after I come back, I will mess up sometimes, you know. I will tear down buildings. I will kill people."

"Anything you tear down, I will rebuild. I've got a contractor on standby. And you know me, always ready to bury a body or compel a witness. It's what I live for."

"I'm still not sure this is all fair to you, Damon, so this is your last chance to change your mind. Because I'm going to be hard to live with. Moody, demanding, clearly a bit of a jealous girlfriend. If you piss me off, I'm likely to bury you in the lake. Or throw you into a refrigerator. And I will take advantage of you. I will lay all my burdens on your shoulders sometimes. All my guilt, all my doubts, everything that scares me about myself."

"With all that you have learned about love, those things still concern you?" Damon stopped her again, and held her face in his hands. "You could never be a burden to me. You want to bury me in the lake? Go for it. I'd probably enjoy it. And we can be each other's humanity, Elena. I will always remind you who you are, who you really are - and you can remind me. And those names that you carry, I'll carry them, too. Who knows, maybe in a century or two, there won't be any new names for your wall. Maybe no new names for my book, either."

"What? That's ridiculous. A Damon Salvatore who doesn't want to kill? No one will even recognize you anymore."

"I know, right? I'm even willing to give up my favorite hobby for you." He stroked her cheek with his thumb, softly, and she looked up at him with large eyes.

Elena stood on her toes, and whispered in his ear. "I'm crazy in love with you, you know. Emphasis on the _in__._"

"I didn't know, but I'm crazy happy to hear it. Emphasis on the _happy._" He turned her face with his fingers, and kissed her deeply.

When they broke apart, Damon sighed. "I suppose we should go get that damn stake, now."

"The stake can wait until morning, Damon."

"It can?"

"Yes. You promised me a more satisfying end to this day. So right now? You and I are going to Town Hall, to your new office, and we are having sex on your new desk. Unless you have an objection, Mayor Salvatore?"

Damon smiled at her. His dark and crazy girl, finally and truly his.

"Hell, no. I entirely and enthusiastically second that motion."


	25. Chapter 25

Epilogue: One Year Later

AN: Thank you, luna1415, for pointing out that Kol could not have just gotten back from running with the bulls in Pamplona, since that does not take place until July and this chapter takes place in May. Sorry for the mistake! We'll have to pretend that there was an extra early running with the bulls that year for some reason. ;)

Also, I would like to point readers to my Klaus/Caroline offshoot to this story, which is located on my profile and called 'This is not a love song'. It fills in what happens to Klaus and Caroline between the end of 'That looks on tempests' and this one year later epilogue.

* * *

"Well, this is a pleasant surprise. You never call me this early. What's up, buttercup?"

"Buttercup. I like that one, it's a classic. What was it you said to me yesterday? 'What's to pass, sasasfras?' Now that was a bit of a reach."

"That was Tuesday. Yesterday, I think I actually said 'what's shakin, bacon', but you didn't care for it, either. Such a critic, Elena."

"So what meeting did I just get you out of?"

"Oh, it was the most fascinating budget meeting. The auditors are inquiring into why the line item has increased substantially for mayoral office furniture expenditure in the last year since I took office. I blamed it on you and your insatiable appetite."

"No, really?"

"Just kidding, it was a garden variety budget meeting, with no questions about my smashingly explosive sex life. But you do owe me a new desk. _Another_ new desk after your last visit. I'm using one from the house right now. I really don't get what it is about mayoral trappings that get you so hot and bothered."

"Oh, I don't know. Something to do with how I'm knocking boots with America's Hottest Small Town Mayor."

"Oh, yeah?" Damon said. "And that cover did not even capture my best side."

"Doesn't matter. It's my screensaver, anyway."

"I hope you are not calling to tell me that you are not coming this weekend. I really don't want my fellow civil servants to see me break down into tears in the hallway. Undermines staff morale."

"On the contrary, I'm calling to tell you that I'm coming early. Tonight, actually."

"Really?"

"I knew that would make you happy. Yeah, Kol and I got into a little disagreement, and I threw him through a wall. Contractors are coming tomorrow morning, so I need to be out of here tonight."

"You, my friend, are such a boon to the construction industry. What did Kol do this time?"

"Grabbed my boob."

"Oh, he's dead."

"Sure he is. If you haven't been able to kil him the last, oh, fifty times you have tried in the past year, I don't think it's going to happen ever. And it could have been accidental. Maybe. We were sparring, so he might have been going for my shoulder. Anyway, I kind of overreacted, - and since the dojo attaches to the kitchen, the wall I took out was a plumbing wall. Water everywhere. You should have seen Kol staggering around with a pipe sticking out of his head. Comedy gold. He's such a moron. I hate him so much. Yes, Kol, I see you there. Stop making faces at me."

"Can you send me a pic?"

"No, sorry, didn't get one. You'll just have to imagine. It was funny as hell, though."

"I didn't even know Kol was back from Spain."

"Ugh. Don't mention Spain. Elijah is furious. You are suppose to _run_ with the bulls, not sit down in the middle of the street and rend them limb from limb. With tv crews filming you. Gross. No more Kansas City Killer, now I'm calling Kol the Prick of Pamplona. Anyway, while the construction crew is out here, there's some other things they need to work on, so I'll be in Mystic Falls for awhile. Maybe all the rest of May, and most of June."

"That's amazingly wonderful news. I'm almost afraid to ask what other stuff they need to fix, though."

"Well . . . the fireplace in the great room."

"All of that stacked river stone. Gorgeous work," Damon groaned.

"And the greenhouse. Again."

"Yikes. Elijah's orchids?"

"Nary a one standing, I'm afraid. Let's see . . . the sauna. But that was Kol's fault, again. He knew I was naked in there, he shouldn't have opened the door. Oh, and I worked out some of my frustrations with Klaus on the guest room that he and Caroline like to use while they are here."

"Dude. You didn't."

"What?"

"The Isabella Stewart Gardner Vermeer hangs in that room!"

"I'm not a complete philistine, Damon. The Vermeer is fine. Although the next time Klaus decides to stash any of his stolen goods in my house, I'm sending it right back to the museum he took it from. He should know better then to keep anything nice here. Kind of taking a huge risk, after all."

"I am suddenly very relieved that you are staying at the lakehouse, and not at the boarding house when you come this time. Katherine brought me a small Pissarro from Paris last month, and I'm madly in love with it. I was going to put it in your room, but not if you're going to be all smashy."

"Well, I don't think it's fair to kick Jeremy out of his home the weekend of his graduation. And Matt's due back from VCU soon, right? That's two too many humans in the house for me."

"Yes, Matt will be in by Monday, I think. Although, I don't know if I am going to let him stay if he brings that girl with him this time."

"Melinda? I was hoping that was over."

"Nope. Only Matt could leave Mystic Falls and come back with a vampire girlfriend. A pushy, mouthy vampire girlfriend. Cannot stand her. You should hear the way she talks to him. And the way she talks to me. No respect."

"Well, you know what Elijah says about young vampires. So arrogant. You want me to bury her in the lake? I've been really itching to do that to somebody lately."

"Tempting. I mean, super tempting, since it means that you will get wet. But, no. He has to make his own mistakes, and it's not like she's compelling him. I make sure of that. Besides, she is going to have to deal with Becks, anyway. They got into it over Spring Break, and Rebekah threw Melinda in the vampire trap for a whole night. Just for speeding. Oh, and for knocking down a stop sign, and then staking Rebekah with it. So it wasn't entirely undeserved. I guess I shouldn't have had Bonnie re-spell the vamp trap, but it seemed like a good precaution to take at the time. It's getting a surprising amount of use."

"I still think it was a good idea. With our town, you need a jail cell that can actually hold a vampire. That's just common sense."

"Yeah, but Rebekah takes her duties as un-official official vampire sheriff a little too seriously. She made me get her a badge and a set of walkie talkies, and she insists that Liz meet with her once a week. She's driving Liz nuts."

"You need her, though. You can't take care of human problems _and _vampire problems at the same time. Somebody has to keep the vampires in line."

"Yes, I know, but she's too damn neck snappy. Tyler forgot to compel one of his feeds last week, and she snapped his neck twice for it. A little overkill, if you ask me. But we have zero trouble from vampire drifters anymore, so that's good."

"Speaking of vampire drifters, you didn't tell me that Katherine came by after Paris. How's that going?"

"Not good. Stefan won't come to the house if she's there, and vice versa. They need to work this shit out, the tension is crazy."

"It can't still be about Paris."

"Oh, no, she's over that. If life with Stefan was just a string of Paris incidents, then Katherine would be a happy camper. I mean, who hasn't wanted to slaughter a cafe full of French waiters? We've all been there. And she handled that fine. Bodies buried, witnesses compelled. No, the latest issue is that Stefan has become way too obsessed with what he is doing at Princeton. Stupid biochemistry PHD. Kind of makes me regret forging all of those credentials and having Elijah arrange a grant for him. He's either going to synthesize that damn protein or die trying. Or rather, Katherine is going to kill him for trying."

"I don't see how Katherine could possibly have a problem with his research. The more he focuses on that, the fewer issues he has with bloodlust in general. She knows that. And once he gets the PHD, he can come home to work at the pediatric oncology center. It's a win for everyone."

"Not at the expense of neglecting her, apparently. I don't think she gives a flying fuck whether or not Stefan figures out how to safely cure mankind's diseases with vampire blood, all she knows is that he's paying her zero attention when he is like this. Not sitting well with our prima donna."

"Poor Katherine," Elena sighed. "I know I'm not her favorite person right now, or ever, but I wish she and I could have another chat. For a master strategist when it comes to her own survival, she's not so great at seeing the big picture when it involves anyone else."

"I can have Becks toss her into the tomb for you, if you like. She could be stuck down there by the time you get in tonight, and you can chat all you want."

"Thanks anyway, but I have other plans for tonight, actually."

"Naked plans?"

"Extremely so."

"Do I get to be involved?"

"Hmmm . . . maybe. Can you clear your schedule for tomorrow, too? Can Mystic Falls do without you for a whole twenty four hours?"

"Baby, if you are going to be naked and stay naked, this town could burn to the ground as far as I am concerned. I'll light the match myself." Damon wriggled his eyebrows at the scandalized lady passing him in the hallway.

"Well, don't burn everything down on my account." Elena took a deep breath, "And speaking of accounts . . ."

"I just spoke to you yesterday afternoon. There haven't been any casualties since the grocery store last week, right?"

"I haven't found out his name yet. A guy who was on our land here in the Berkshires. Hiking, I guess. Or hitchhiking, I don't know. He didn't have a driver's license on him. He just surprised me, that's all."

"And then you surprised him." Damon sighed. "I'm sorry, babe. You've been trying so hard and doing so well."

"It wasn't like the grocery store at all. That was supposed to be a controlled experiment, and things just went wrong. But I least I went in with some preparation. I wasn't prepared at all for the guy yesterday. And if he hadn't gotten aggressive all of a sudden . . . I mean, if I had just come across a gardener doing his job there would have been no problem."

"You should have called me last night."

"I know. But you were having that graduation barbecue for Jeremy's friends, and I didn't want to ruin the festive atmosphere. But you are right, and I probably should have."

"You need me to find out the hiker's name for you?"

"Carlos is on it."

"Well, on the bright side, the hiker and the grocery store incident aside, it's been a really good three months for you."

"I know. I know it has, objectively. And when I tore the grocery store down, it wasn't about blood at all. That has eased to the point where I feel almost safe enough to be inside a building with actual people. Almost. Not willing to experiment with my own brother, or with Matt, though."

"Understandable. Well, I did fix it so graduation is going to be outdoors, just for you."

"You did?"

"Yep. Compelled a couple of kids to turn the sprinklers on inside the gym this morning, so the place was flooded. It'll take days to dry out, and they will need to repair the floors, so they are doing graduation on the lawn. And yes, before you ask, I'll pay to fix the damn floor. You'll get to see Jeremy walk across the stage and get his diploma after all. It was going to be a surprise, but what the hell."

"Thank you, Damon. So much. So so much. It means a lot to me, and you know that. And I hope it means a lot to Jeremy as well." Elena was quiet for a second, and then added, "I guess walking into prom must have been quite a fluke. I've not been able to do anything like that again. I don't understand why."

"Well, you were on a mission that day. It was an extraordinary day all around, if you remember. But someday you will again, Elena. Someday you will have all us beat when it comes to control, and you know that."

"Everyday, it gets better."

"Hell yeah, it does. And tonight, it gets even better than that, if you know what I mean. I'm basically talking about sex here, in case I wasn't being clear enough."

"Damon, we should have a party."

"Are we still talking about sex?"

"No, silly. A party where people keep their clothes on."

"Oh, that sounds lame. But hey, we are already having a party. After graduation, remember?"

"No, another party. Smaller, less human-y."

"Oh, yeah, what kind?"

"We should have folks come up for a cook out on the deck at the lakehouse, next week after everyone is back home from college. I haven't seen Bonnie or Tyler in forever. And Caroline and Klaus should be back from Tokyo by then, right?"

"I think so. By Wednesday at the latest. If we invite Klaus, we can't invite Tyler, though."

"Really? Still?" Elena sighed. "Everyone is being so stupid. If you and me and Stefan and Katherine can manage to hold it together most of the time, then I don't understand everyone else's problem. But fine, we'll invite Tyler and Caroline and _not_ Klaus. I like not inviting Klaus to things, anyway. He gets pouty, and that makes me happy."

"I am totally cool with that solution."

"Is Katherine actually in town right now?"

"Yes, your identical cousin Kathy who gets up to wacky hijinks is back at the house. She got in late last night and woke me up. I almost staked her. I'm making her stay home today, though. Nevada is supposed to pop a litter either today or tomorrow, so she's on dog labor duty."

"Wait - I thought Nevada was a boy dog?"

"So did we. Your brother is an idiot. All this time, he thought Nevada was just getting fat off of dropped Cheetos."

"Puppies! That's adorable. I am super excited about that. Well, if Katherine is there, then make sure Stefan gets his ass home, too. Although, tell him no eating the puppies. We'll solve this stupid issue he and Katherine are having while I'm in town."

"Oh, never let it be said that you don't like to meddle."

"You are a fine one to talk, Mr. Mayor."

"Good point. And speaking of . . . "

"Oh, I know. Civic duty calls. And I need to hop in the car to make it down there before midnight, anyway. Well, then, I crazy love you."

"I crazy love you, too. Damn, we're so cute it almost hurts to be us."

"I know, right?" Elena laughed. "We are so the couple that everyone else hates to be around. So I'll see you tonight for illicit sexual relations, 'kay?" She paused, and then Damon heard her say, "Kol, if you don't stop humping the couch, I am going to dagger the _fuck_ out of you."

Damon laughed. "Tonight, Elena. It's a date."


End file.
